Swedish furniture retailer Ikea will be opening a new store in Mumbai by 2018-end and will be holding a ceremony at its centre in Bengaluru. Therefore, Mumbai will be the second Indian city after Hyderabad to have an Ikea store. As per reports, Ikea plans to have around 25 stores in Indian cities such as Ahmedabad, Surat, Pune, Chennai, and Kolkata by 2025.
The Swedish furniture giant will be investing almost ₹3,000 crore in the upcoming three years to open warehouses in Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Delhi. The furniture retailer stated that despite the Centre’s recent hike in customs duty on non-essential goods, they will not raise the prices of its low-end furniture and furnishing products.
Also Read: Mobile Food Delivery Service Foodpanda Asked To Vacate Office At Mittal Complex Over Paan Stains
Deputy Country Manager Patrik Antoni said that Ikea is a global company and plans to promote global trade. However, Antoni stated that they are not very happy with the trade barriers such as customs tariff or import duties.
On September 26, the Central Government had hiked customs duties on as many as 19 items, consisting of jet fuel, air conditioners (AC) and refrigerators. As Ikea imports most of the products it sells, many of them come under the latest customs duty hike and therefore, the total import bill for the products during the last fiscal year was ₹86,000
crore.