CNBC-TV18 caught up with Juviencio Maeztu, the India CEO of one of the biggest Swedish companies IKEA, which is all set to come into India, and is opening a store at Hyderabad. In the interview, Maeztu also outlined the firm's expansion plans.
Below is the transcript of Juviencio Maeztu’s interview with CNBC-TV18\\'s Rituparna Bhuyan.
Q: How are the India plans moving ahead?
A: we are in parallel growing with production and retail. The first is Hyderabad as you say and we are now moving with three more cities, with Bangalore, Delhi NCR and with Mumbai. Why it is important for us is because we built this expansion plan based on four layers making a concentration strategy. The first one is retail expansion, the second one is production around retail. The third one is about the whole logistic networking and the fourth one is all the activities that we do with IKEA Foundation. All these four things together are creating a positive impact and are more efficient.
Q: When do we see the other stores getting finalised or have you got the land in terms of fixed area and the kind of other permissions in terms of the other three cities?
A: We are moving ahead, the first store will be Hyderabad. Thereafter we will see in more places and more news will come soon.
Q: We also understand that you may start production in India and set up factories in India. Can you quickly tell us about those plans as well?
A: We have been on one hand sourcing for 30 years mainly textile and plastics or metals but now as retail it is expanding now we are setting up sourcing of furniture not only furnishing. And in that sense we have closed a partnership with suppliers in Telangana and Karnataka right now and this is just a beginning.
Q: Foreign direct investment (FDI) sourcing policy has been changed, it has been eased. How will it impact IKEA, will it make life easier in terms of complying with sourcing norms?
A: The point is that in IKEA we are externally committed with long term. What it means is that we need to go for sustainable sourcing.
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