Swedish furniture brand IKEA recently opened its 400,000 sq. ft. debut outlet in India, features a 1,000-seater restaurant, the brand’s largest in the over 400 stores it has globally. The idea behind offering food options was that once you feed customers, they stay for longer.IKEA’s restaurants worldwide contribute significantly to the brand’s revenue. It’s a sure shot way to lure customers in, especially in a country like India where food is an integral part of the culture.
IKEA restaurants worldwide are known for their meatballs–so much so that the meatball meal comprises of 20-25 percent of their total restaurant business. The business is so good that the brand is now working consciously towards introducing healthy foods, for instance, they have reduced the sugar content in their drinks. Highlights of the menu straight from their Swedish cuisine include salmon, cinnamon buns, croissant, blueberry jam, and cloudberry. For India, the furniture giant created a menu more customized to the Indian palate, replacing their signature traditional Swedish meatballs dish with chicken and vegetable balls.IKEA also serves various local dishes like Hyderabadi Biryani, Dal Makhani, and Indian bread to name a few for their Indian audience
IKEA is planning to open its second store in Mumbai in October 2019, followed by stores in Bengaluru and Delhi-NCR. IKEA is planning to more or less copy-paste the same concept with a few differences in other cities. We will have approximately 1000-seater restaurants in all our stores in India over the coming few years. In their upcoming Mumbai outlet, they will be serving some mandatory dishes that have been proven successful. Apart from this, they plan to have the signature vada-pav on the menu Globally, the restaurant business contributes 5-6 percent of IKEA’s sales. The brand has 390 restaurants all over the world and sells food to approximately 650 million customers every year. In India, currently, food is contributing between 5 to 10 percent of IKEA’s revenue
