Ikea’s Rs 5,000 crore mega plan for Uttar Pradesh

TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ Swedish home furnishing brand, Ikea is looking to invest nearly Rs 5,000 crore in the Uttar Pradesh market over the next few years to expand its footprint. The company is likely to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Yogi Adityanath government for opening retail stores in the important towns of the state.

On September 24, 2015, Idea had signed a MoU with the UP government during the previous Akhilesh Yadav regime for launching three stores in Lucknow, Agra and Noida, however, things did not move forward. The company had then signed similar agreements with the state governments of Telangana, Maharashtra and Karnataka as well.

Yesterday, UP chief secretary Anup Chandra Pandey directed officials to invite Ikea forgiving a detailed presentation regarding its investment roadmap in UP. He mandated industrial development special secretary to coordinate with the multinational for speeding up the matter before the state government’s second proposed ‘groundbreaking’ ceremony in Lucknow for industrial projects totalling about Rs 50,000 crore. Ikea had launched its maiden India store at Hyderabad earlier this year and plans to launch stores across big cities going forward.