Beauty & fashion

IKEA missing in India – I miss the Poang Armchair

Last June IKEA, the Swedish retail giant announced that it has shelved the plans to enter India. The reason being that currently in India foreign owned single brand outlets cannot be owned 100% by the foreign based firms. They will have to have only 51% equity stake and rest will have to be someone local. That means that IKEA will not have had the full 100% ownership and that would have meant that they would have to share the control with someone else. Well not so good for IKEA as now they will have to wait till the regulations open and IKEA is missing on that retail boom and big emerging middle class. Then again Indian middle class missed out on the beautiful, modern and contemporary furniture that would have been useful and economically cheap than the sub standard stuff that you get from most furniture makers.

The other benefit would have been that the currently fragmented industry would have started to organize and more customer friendly.

I personally was hoping buy that Poang Armchair that is oh so famous all over the world and I had used it when I visited USA once last year. I tried in India and I could not get anything similar to that in India. Poang footstool and chair provide that special comfort and elegance which cannot be had by any other style of armchair.

For Indians who are reading this and have never heard f IKEA should know that IKEA is known for its low priced furniture based on do-it-yourself concept and the designs are very minimalist Scandinavian.Well IKEA id all bout modern and if you are interested in antique then look for some antique arm chair information here.

Another thing to note is that currently IKEA buys products worth Rs. 1700 crore from Indian suppliers and they hope to double that yet they just cannot sell the furniture here. How Sad !

Well Indian carpenters are happy I am sure as I recently read that IKEA catalogs and brochures are sold everywhere and the Indian elite get the copies of the IKEA furniture made by the local carpenters. Yes Indians are known for that! And they say that imitation is the best form of flattery. I am not sure I will go that route and engage an Indian carpenter but I am tempted!

Tags: antique armchairs, armchairs, IKEA armchairs