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Ikea can’t get the meatball rolling in India

Swedish retailer Ikea said Friday it was reviewing sweeping curbs imposed on what it can sell at its planned new stores in India. One will reportedly prevent it offering its famed meatballs.

Ikea can't get the meatball rolling in India
A file image of Swedish meatballs

India’s foreign investment panel has rejected 15 of Ikea’s 30 product lines, a report said on Friday, underscoring the regulatory hurdles faced by foreign stores who are eyeing the Indian market with renewed interest.

“We are now internally reviewing the details (of the investment board’s decision),” an Ikea spokeswoman told AFP, adding that she could not confirm the curbs as reported by The Economic Times on Friday.

Among the lines Ikea has been told by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board that it cannot sell are gift items, fabrics, books, toys, consumer electronics, and food, the newspaper reported.

The group will, however, be allowed to sell furniture — its core business.

The investment panel also reportedly told Ikea it cannot offer customer financing schemes because that would violate banking regulations, or open cafes and food markets because that would break food policy regulations.

Ikea’s entry into India — it has pledged to invest $1.9 billion in the coming years — is being closely watched by competitors as a test case for how a large foreign corporation negotiates India’s byzantine rules and red tape.

India’s government announced a string of pro-market and investor-friendly reforms in September that relaxed or removed barriers preventing foreign retailers from operating in the country.

Ikea hopes to open 25 of its trademark blue-and-yellow stores in India through a 100-percent owned unit, Ingka Holding, as part of a wider push into emerging markets like China and Russia.

The government initially insisted that Ikea obtain 30 percent of its supplies from small Indian manufacturers that the Swedish retailer feared would not be able to keep pace with demand.

Later the government dropped the demand specifying the size of the supplier, but kept the 30 percent local sourcing requirement.

AFP/The Local

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WEATHER

Danish Ikea store shelters staff and customers overnight during snowstorm

Heavy snowfall left 31 people looking for a spare cushion at the Aalborg branch of Ikea on Wednesday as they were forced to spend the night at the store.

A file photo at Ikea in Aalborg, where 31 people stayed overnight during a snowstorm on December 1st 2021.
A file photo at Ikea in Aalborg, where 31 people stayed overnight during a snowstorm on December 1st 2021. Photo: Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix

Anyone who has found themselves wandering the mazy aisles of an Ikea might be able to empathise with the sense of being lost in the furniture store for a seemingly indefinite time.

Such a feeling was probably more real than usual for six customers and 25 staff members who were forced to spend the night at the furniture giant’s Aalborg branch after being snowed in.

Heavy snow in North Jutland brought traffic to a standstill and halted public transport in parts of the region on Wednesday afternoon, resulting in a snow-in at Ikea.

“This is certainly a new situation for us,” Ikea Aalborg store manager Peter Elmose told local media Nordjyske, which first reported the story.

“It’s certainly not how I thought my day would end when I drove to work this morning,” Elmose added.

The 31 people gathered in the store’s restaurant area and planned to see Christmas television and football to pass the evening, the store’s manager reported to Nordjyske.

“Our kitchen staff have made sure there is hot chocolate, risalamande, pastries, soft drinks, coffee and the odd beer for us in light of the occasion. So we’ll be able to keep warm,” he said.

“We couldn’t just send them outside and lock the door behind them at our 8pm closing time. Absolutely not. So of course they’ll be staying here,” he added.

The temporary guests were given lodging in different departments of the store in view of the Covid-19 situation, Nordjyske writes.

“For us , the most important thing was to take care of each other and that everyone feels safe,” Elmose said.

At least Ikea’s stranded customers and staff had somewhere comfortable to lay their heads.

The same can unlikely be said for around 300 passengers at the city’s airport who had to stay overnight at the terminal.

The airport was forced to stop flights from 2:30pm yesterday amid worsening weather, which also prevented buses from transferring passengers to hotels.

“We have around 300 people in the terminal right now and have been giving out blankets on the assumption they will be staying here tonight,” Aalborg Airport operations manager Kim Bermann told Nordjyske.

READ ALSO: Ikea reopens in Denmark after country’s worst retail month this century

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