Sweden’s IKEA plans to double India investment to $2.2 billion over five years

CHENNAI, Jan 20 (Reuters) – Sweden’s IKEA will more than double its investment in India to more than 200 billion rupees ($2.2 billion) over the next five years, a senior executive said on Monday, as the furniture retailer plans to open more stores and increase local sourcing.

IKEA, which opened its first store in India in the southern city of Hyderabad in 2018, will start accepting online orders in four other cities, including Chennai and Coimbatore in the state of Tamil Nadu, where it does not currently have a physical presence.

“(India) is not yet a major IKEA country… But the belief is very strong that India will be one of our largest markets,” IKEA India CEO Patrik Antoni said in an interview with Reuters.

The retailer’s India sales rose 6% to 18.61 billion rupees in the year ending August 2025, and Antoni said it plans to quadruple that, including increasing its store count to 30.

Bhavana Jaiswal, country e-commerce integration manager, said the company plans to start online operations before opening a physical store in new cities (a global first for IKEA) as younger consumers shop more online to beat traffic.

IKEA will also double production for domestic stores and increase exports to 800 million euros ($930 million), Antoni said.

IKEA’s move comes as global brands increase export production in India to cut costs, while leading consumer companies from shoemaker Asics to automaker VinFast Auto increase sourcing to meet domestic demand.

US President Donald Trump doubled the customs duties on imports from India to 50% on some goods last year, forcing many industries to find new customers in other countries.

However, Antoni said this did not affect IKEA’s Indian suppliers much as the brand, which has most of its stores in Europe, sent more products to other markets.

($1 = 90.8600 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai; Editing by Harikrishnan Nair)