CHENNAI, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Sweden's IKEA will more than double its investment in India to over 200 billion rupees ($2.2 billion) in the next five years as the furniture retailer plans to open more stores and increase sourcing locally, a top executive said on Monday.
IKEA, which opened its first India store in 2018 in the southern city of Hyderabad, will begin accepting online orders in four other cities where it currently does not have a physical presence, including Chennai and Coimbatore, in Tamil Nadu state.
"(India) is not a large IKEA country yet ... But the belief in India is very strong that it will be one of our top markets," said Patrik Antoni, CEO of IKEA India, in an interview with Reuters.
The retailer's India sales rose 6% to 18.61 billion rupees in the year ended August 2025, and Antoni said it plans to quadruple it, including by expanding store count to 30.
The company plans to start online operations before opening a brick-and-mortar store in new cities — a first for IKEA globally — as young consumers shop online more to beat traffic, said Bhavana Jaiswal, country e-commerce integration manager.
IKEA will also double production for domestic stores and exports to 800 million euros ($930 million), said Antoni.
IKEA's move comes as global brands ramp up export production in India to cut costs, while consumer majors from shoemaker Asics to carmaker VinFast Auto also step up sourcing to meet domestic demand.
U.S. President Donald Trump doubled tariffs on imports from India to as much as 50% last year on some goods, forcing many industries to find new clients in other countries.
Antoni, however, said it has not affected IKEA's Indian suppliers much, as the brand, which has most of its stores in Europe, ships more to other markets.
($1 = 90.8600 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai; Editing by Harikrishnan Nair)
