?IKEA to open 1,000-seater Swedish restaurant in Hyderabad

IKEA, a Swedish multinational group of companies that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture appliances and home accessories, is all set to open its restaurant store in Hyderabad. The store will feature 7,500 furniture and home furnishing products and a 1,000-seater restaurant serving healthy and nutritious Indian and Swedish cuisine.

The company, which received Government approval in 2013 to invest Rs 10,500 crore in India under the 100 per cent foreign direct investment route, plans to open its second store in Mumbai.

And going further, it plans to open 25 stores in nine Indian cities. However, the size of all the stores will be different just like its other 328 stores around the globe.

Henrik Österström, Country Food Manager, IKEA India, said, "We are planning to serve healthy food at affordable prices to attract more people to our store.” He further added, “As the restaurant will open within half an hour of opening of the store, we may give coffee for free and then thereby attract people little bit earlier than the normal time."

Österström said, "We won't be serving the traditional meatballs just like the rest of the world. We will only be serving Chicken and Veg Balls in a traditional way with mashed potato, cream sauce and lingo berries."

He further added, "We will never force anyone to eat Swedish food, there will always be an option of either eating global or local food. The prices of the dishes available at the restaurant will be affordable. We plan to have the lowest prices of the comparable products. Our local range will be open to price comparison whereas the global range is an exclusive range which the consumer won’t be able to find anywhere else."

Globally, the restaurant business accounts for 5.4 per cent of the total revenue of IKEA whereas in India, the furniture giant is expecting the restaurant to contribute 10 per cent of the total revenue.