(MENAFN- Live Mint) Ikea India Pvt. Ltd has leased 37,259 square feet in a shopping mall for its first store in Pune, as the Sweden-headquartered home furnishings retailer looks to expand its compact urban showroom footprint and ramp up its omnichannel presence.

The space is leased at Phoenix Marketcity mall in Pune's Viman Nagar Road for a five-year tenure. The starting monthly rent is around ₹38 lakh. The deal was registered on 15 October, according to real estate data platform CRE Matrix.

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In August, Ikea opened a 15,000 sq. ft store at Pacific Mall in New Delhi's Tagore Garden and announced plans to expand to Chennai and Pune as part of its next phase of growth.

It first announced its entry into India's retail market in 2013 after winning approval to open stores under India's foreign direct investment (FDI) rules.

“Ikea's lease at Phoenix Marketcity, Pune, marks a significant milestone for India's retail real estate landscape. The transaction reaffirms the strength of India's consumption-driven growth story and the attractiveness of Grade-A malls for international retailers. Pune, in particular, has emerged as a key retail destination given its expanding affluent consumer base and increasing urban density,” said Abhishek Kiran Gupta, chief executive and co-founder, CRE Matrix.

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Ikea has large-format stores in Hyderabad, Navi Mumbai, and Bengaluru, as well as small-format or city stores. It offers online deliveries across various pin codes, including Pune, in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Gujarat, among other markets.

The Ingka Group, which operates Ikea stores and shopping centres globally, has also announced plans to open Ikea-anchored large shopping malls in India, with two such projects currently under construction in Noida and Gurugram.

An Ikea spokesperson said Pune has been an important market for Ikea India and it has shown strong demand from customers. The company launched its e-commerce presence in Pune in January 2020, with access to the full Ikea range online before a physical store opened.

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“Given its proximity to Navi Mumbai, many customers from Pune have also embraced the Ikea Navi Mumbai store experience. Pune continues to be a priority market for us, and we are now excited to bring a more dynamic Ikea experience through a true omnichannel presence in the city, starting with a city store,” the spokesperson added.

The company will open a second city store in Delhi and add three more small city stores in the coming months, as it shifts its focus from large-format outlets to compact urban showrooms, Patrik Antoni, chief executive, Ikea India, told Mint in an interview in September.

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