by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Commodity Market, Economy, Entrepreneurship, Investing, Markets, Medium Enterprise, News, SMEs, Startup Basics, Your Business Plan
By Mohammed Shafeeq,
Hyderabad : Walking through the sprawling, newly-opened IKEA store here needs energy and the company is making sure that customers get to recharge at its trademark restaurant. The 1,000-seater restaurant is the biggest among the Swedish home furnishings retailer’s global network in 50 countries.
The thousands of customers who flocked IKEA’s first India store that opened on August 9 had a massive range of 7,500 world-class products to choose from. With 1,000 products priced below Rs 200, the affordability and the quality of the international brand was the talk of the town.
So also was the restaurant, with half its menu offering Indian and the other half Swedish food — in line with the company’s global practice.
“We cater to the local taste wherever we have our operations and half of our food here is Swedish,” Henrik Osterstrom, Country Food Manager, IKEA Food, told IANS at the restaurant, teeming with hundreds of customers.
At the India store, chicken meat balls have replaced beef meat balls, a popular dish on IKEA’s menu globally. It has also dropped pork from the menu for India.
“Since many people in India don’t eat beef, we are not selling it. As there are many Muslims, we are respecting their sentiments as well by not selling pork,” Osterstrom said.
The menu includes vegetable biryani, salmon fillet, dal makhni, cakes, green salad, fruit salad, cinnamon buns and and variety of beverages.
Osterstrom is happy with the customers’ response so far. “It’s fantastic to see so many people coming here. We are selling a lot of biryani, chicken meat balls, veggie balls and dal makhani as well,” he said.
Like its home furnishing products, IKEA is also offering a menu to suit all sizes of wallets. Vegetable biryani is priced at Rs 99, chicken meat balls at Rs 149 and veggie balls at Rs 129.
“We have ensured that the food is affordable, of high quality and of good taste. We call it Swedish-feel Indian-appeal,” said Osterstrom.
The Swedish dishes include chicken meat balls, salmon fillet, lingonberry juice and cinnamon buns.
Customers have to serve themselves — right from picking up trays and trolleys to collecting food and later leaving the trays and trolleys at designated points. The service is quick as customers collect their orders in a couple of minutes while moving in the queue along the food counters and the billing is done while heading towards their tables.
Why choose India for the company’s biggest restaurant globally? “It became like that. I think food is starting point in India. We have large restaurants in other countries, especially in Asia, where food is vital. We wanted to give a nice atmosphere and make sure that it is not crowded,” he said.
Globally, restaurants contribute 10 percent of IKEA’s sales but Osterstrom hopes it will be higher in India as big footfalls are expected. “People in India llove food. It’s just the beginning and we will see more customers.”
Over 40,000 customers visited IKEA store on the first day. The company expects at least 60 lakh footfalls annually at the store, which has come up with an investment of Rs 1,000 crore in the heart of HITEC City, the information technology hub.
IKEA plans to open 25 stores across India by 2025. The next store will open in Mumbai next year followed by Bengaluru and Delhi.
The concept of a store is integral to IKEA, founded by Ingvar Kamprad in 1943.
“Our founder, from day one, had this idea. As our showrooms are huge and it takes time for customers to go around the entire store, they feel hungry. We also have a play area for kids. It should be fun day for the whole family,” Osterstrom explained.
The restaurant is located such that if customers feel hungry, after walking through one home furnishings section of the store, they should get new energy to enter the next phase of shopping, that is, the market hall.
And, after another long walk through the market hall and checkout, customers find in front of them a cafe for refreshments. Here they get a wide range of cookies, chocolates and other delicacies. A samosa costs just Rs 10 while frozen yogurt, which tastes like soft serve ice cream, is also available at the same price.
(Mohammed Shafeeq can be contacted at m.shafeeq@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Employment, Entrepreneurship, Private Jobs, Social Entrepreneur, Women Entrepreneur
For representational purpose only
By Mudita Girotra,
Mirzapur (Uttar Pradesh) : For Nirmala Maurya, 32, running and managing the home became tedious and she began a different life swimming against the social current. For Nirmala, from Arjunpur Pathak village, her journey of self-reliance and financial independence began in 2010 when she was approached by Rangsutra, a community-owned craft company of over a thousand artisans from remote regions of India which boasts of “ensuring sustainable livelihoods and regular employment for rural artisans”.
The company leverages the growing handicraft businesses to reduce poverty and to empower women by making them financially independent.
In several villages near Mirzapur, many women like Nirmala – with or without their family’s support – made the same attempt to break the deadlock and joined the organisation.
“It was a huge battle against the taboo,” Nirmala told IANS.
She said her husband, against her wishes, wanted her to shift with him to Kohlapur, where he works.
“For the one week training programme that Rangsutra held in Jaunpur, I wasn’t given permission by my parents-in-law…I had to go to my mother’s house in Benaras where I left my kids and went on to get trained,” she said.
It took time to win the family’s support but, Nirmala says, people in the village still have objections. “They keep saying all kinds of things, they joke about it but I don’t care about anything they feel or say as long as my job makes me happy,” she said.
“Many of them can’t even educate their kids but I have been successful in sending all my three daughters to school.”
Now, she has started to save money to build a proper house and to get rid of the mud house that she and her family have been staying in.
She is one of hundreds of women in Uttar Pradesh who, for the past five years, have been making textile products for IKEA, the Swedish-founded, Netherlands-headquartered furniture and home appliances’ giant.
Through Rangsutra, around 600 women now work with IKEA, which still does not have a retail presence in India but is expected to open soon.
“Since 2012 IKEA, has been forming partnerships with social entrepreneurs around the world. The social entrepreneurs IKEA works with gain access to a global marketplace, giving them a strong foundation for self-sufficiency and independence,” said Vaishali Mishra, Global Leader, Social Entrepreneur Initiatives, IKEA.
“These partnerships are a new way to make business where everyone wins. The social entrepreneurs gain access to a global marketplace and are able to provide the artisans with a job on their own terms, helping them stay in their village and at the same time provide for their families,” she added.
Mishra said that across the years, she has seen lives change.
“I remember the same women were so shy and withdrawn initially. They would not come out in the open without their ghunghats on,” she said. “Today, you see them confidently taking up the job, feeling responsible and confident” about being able to make a financial contribution to the family, she stressed.
Radhika Vishwakarma, 22, had a tough time convincing her mother-in-law, who finally snapped: “Do whatever you want!”
“I felt, all right, she has given her permission,” she laughed.
With little dreams for themselves and big ones for their children, every morning many of these women hail a ride on auto-rickshaws and bicycles to the IKEA workshop here in Mirzapur.
One of them, very humbly, said: “I want my daughter to grow up and become a pilot.”
The workshop has some inspiring, and some very heart-touching stories about women with calibre, women with confidence and about women who dream to become big and move beyond the social barriers.
But then, everybody’s tale is not the same. There were also those whose husbands and parents-in-law were more than ready to let them work.
“Acha hai apne bacho ke liye do-chaar paise kama leti hai. Ghar pe bethe bethe bhi kya karna waise (Nice, she earns for her kids. What’s the point of sitting idle at home, anyway?)” questioned 65-year-old Munni Devi, mother-in-law of Rangsutra employee Rekha.
Her father-in-law Radhe Shyam added: “Zamana badal gaya hai…ab sab pehle se alag aur behtar hai. Kaahe nahi jaegi Rekha kaam karne (Times have changed…it is different and better than before. Why shouldn’t Rekha go to work?)”
“The money I earn, I confidently spend on myself without asking my husband for any support,” said 28-year-old Rekha, who now has around 20 women working under her.
“This independence feels good.”
(Mudita Girotra’s visit to Mirzapur was at the invitation of IKEA. She can be contacted atmudita.g@ians.in)
—IANS
