It’s a balmy afternoon in Chennai and the sprawling, leafy environs of the venerable Madras Club, on the banks of the Adyar river, are tranquil and quiet. The mild sun is filtering lazily through the tall trees, the light bouncing off the myriad leaves on the ground. One of the oldest surviving social clubs in India, founded in 1832, with colonial-era architecture, it’s the venue home furnishings retailer Ikea India has chosen for the launch of its venture into Tamil Nadu.

Patrik Antoni, CEO, Ikea India, is here to talk about the Swedish firm’s plans for the TN market. He says the company has been eyeing the Chennai market since 2015. “We see India as one of the most potential markets for Ikea in the world. Its economic development and fantastic demography make it a market where Ikea will grow over the coming years, and we have a long-term perspective here,” he tells mediapersons. The TN venture is online-only for now; physical stores may follow later.

Once Antoni is done with his media confabulations, we catch up over a sumptuous buffet lunch. I help myself to some aloo chaat with tamarind and mint chutney with pomegranate seeds, alongside sabudana vadas while Antoni serves himself some aloo chaat.

It’s his second stint with Ikea in India, he says. He was part of the start-up team from 2013 to 2018, ahead of the Hyderabad store’s opening. “I was No. 7 on the team and then, when I left, we were about 900 people,” he recalls. Antoni had moved to India from a stint in Portugal. “I was living in Portugal with my wife and was asked if I wanted to go to India. It’s quite a big step for a family to move to India from Europe. I told my wife, ‘When we’re 70 years old and sitting on a bench feeding the pigeons, we shouldn’t regret it. Opening India, that’s something we will always remember.’ So, she agreed and we took off for India. And it was a fantastic journey, I would say, discovering and travelling around the country.” There were many learnings from the Indian market, including things like testing the company’s wooden furniture in the country’s humidity.

From India, Antoni and family moved to Russia, a mature market with 14 Ikea shopping centres spread across two million sq m. And then Ikea opened four more stores in that country and employed nearly 13,000 people. But once Russia’s war with Ukraine started, Ikea shut down the whole edifice. “It came from the values of the company. We didn’t want to operate in a country that invaded its neighbour. Sweden, too, is not supportive of the war. Supply chains were completely disrupted, too. We sold all our real estate. It was very emotionally disturbing, because we had to let go of thousands of people,” recalls Antoni.

It was back to India again, this time as CEO, in August 2025. “It felt new enough to be super-exciting and, at the same time, familiar enough to feel comfortable. Our oldest daughter was born in India, so she was now coming back home. It’s a very interesting time to be at Ikea here, both as a leader as well as a co-worker because today we have 3,000 co-workers and we will be 6,000 in five years, as we will be hiring a lot,” elaborates Antoni.

We help ourselves to some murgh masallam stuffed with a bed of almond gravy and methi, and Malabar parathas. While Antoni sticks to the chicken, I add some pan-seared paneer medallions in makhni gravy to my plate and some kaju pulao with mint cilantro sprigs. Thus fortified, we carry on our conversation.

While one-year army service is mandatory in Sweden, the over 6 ft tall and fit-looking Antoni served four years with the Swedish army as a telecom engineer, training in electronic warfare. When he and a friend sought half a year’s leave from the army to travel, it was refused. So they both quit the army and travelled anyway, he says with a laugh. With his passion for diving, Antoni did stints as a diving instructor in the Philippines and Indonesia.

Local sourcing

I ask him how far Ikea is in its Indianisation journey. Antoni explains that Ikea has over 15,000 products at its stores in Europe, but it has chosen 6,500 that are more relevant for India, ranging from kitchenware and bedroom products to bathroom and storage solutions. “Then the big customisation is how we put things together. So, if you go to an Ikea store in Mumbai, Hyderabad or Sweden, they look different because we’re trying to understand the local needs and demands and make stores that fit those demands,” he explains.

In Mumbai homes, the rooms are smaller, so the store will have different solutions on ways to use the walls, while in Hyderabad people have more space, so they will have more furniture. His favourite example is of the shoe cupboard and how it has to be adapted. In India, footwear is usually left outside the house, while in Sweden a shoe rack is in the hallway, and in Portugal shoes are worn in the house and stacked in the bedroom! Or take the washing machine. In Sweden, it’s always in the bathroom, in Portugal in the kitchen, in Russia it’s in the hallway as the flats are small, while in India it’s often placed in the balcony. “So, we needed to reflect on this in the solutions we offer. It’s a lot about how to figure out where and how people do their things. In Sweden, for example, you do your makeup mostly in the bathroom, but here you don’t because it’s a wet bathroom and you don’t keep your stuff there.” Insights were drawn from visiting homes in India and understanding living habits.

Another marked difference he found in India is that the bedroom is an important category. “In many other countries it’s where you sleep and store clothes, but here a lot more activities go on in the bedroom — everything from makeup to eating and studying. Then, of course, the socialising part is very big, so a lot of people invest in the living room too. Both have space or seating capacity, but also to show off when guests come. In many other markets, the kitchen is a showcase also. But here we have the biggest sales in the bedroom and living room,” he elaborates. Also, in India, he says, there are a lot more people involved in service — at the stores and in delivery and assembling, as buyers are still not used to the Ikea way of DIY.

In India, Antoni says, 30 per cent of the volume of products sold is locally sourced — from textiles and furniture to plastic products — while globally, Ikea sources three per cent from India. The plan is to hike local sourcing to 50 per cent. Europe is by far the biggest, with 60 per cent sourcing; from China it is 30 per cent; and 10 per cent from the rest of the world. “We have a thousand suppliers in 55 countries. So, a wardrobe that you buy here can have a door from Europe, the box can come from China, while the handle can come from somewhere else. They’re made where it’s most efficient to make them, and then they’re put together. We make pieces of a puzzle that you put together,” he says. Ikea wants to do more outside China. “It’s not so easy because the furniture industry is not very well developed yet (in India). We have issues with wood because India has strict forestry laws and not so much certified wood,” he explains.

Revenue outlook

We indulge in a dessert of raspberry and oats crumble tart with custard cream while we go over Ikea’s financials. Ikea India reported a marginally lower revenue of ₹1,749.5 crore for the year ended March 2025 compared to the previous year, while net loss touched ₹1,325 crore in FY25, compared with ₹1,299.4 crore a year earlier. Antoni says the company in India is still in the investment phase. “The ambition is to quadruple sales by 2030 and be profitable by the end of 2028,” he adds.

Ikea India has invested ₹10,500 crore and intends to double that by 2030, perhaps adding another 20-30 stores to the six it has now. “But again, it depends on how things move,” he adds. The online business in India is around 30 per cent and is growing. “Most countries are at 20-30 per cent. So, probably in India it could go up to 40 per cent. But it depends on how well we penetrate the cities,” he explains.

I ask him how he stays fit. “I’m generally active; I surfed for three days in Kovalam. I have two small kids, we do all kinds of things together — football to tennis; and I do some morning yoga. Nothing extreme — I ski, dive as well.”

His favourite Indian foods, he confesses, would be palak paneer and probably dal makhni. “And I don’t mind the coconut curries of the south.” In Chennai, did he indulge in a masala dosa, I ask? “What, were you watching me in the hotel? I did have one for breakfast,” he says with a laugh. Freshly caught fish is another indulgence. “We bought from the fishermen in Kovalam. You put it on the grill, a little bit of salt, pepper and olive oil. It doesn’t need more,” says Antoni, almost smacking his lips. With food fetching 7-8 per cent of revenues at Ikea stores, may be this will find its way onto the menu soon.

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Published on March 16, 2026