Swedish furniture giant IKEA has postponed the launch of its first India store that was to come up in Hyderabad on July 19. On Friday, the company announced the store would be launched on 9 August as it needed more time to ensure quality commitments.

“Our main priority is to create an inspiring and safe experience for both customers and co-workers. Opening the first Indian IKEA store in Hyderabad means a lot to IKEA and we want to offer the best possible meeting with IKEA for the many Indian customers,” said Peter Betzel CEO, IKEA Retail India.

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The upcoming store will be a massive 37,000 square metre outlet spread over 13 acres, complete with a 1,000-seat cafeteria — IKEA’s largest among the over 400 stores across the world. The company had earlier said it would feature over 7,000 products — almost 2,000 of them priced below Rs 200.

READ | IKEA restaurant is coming to Hyderabad without Swedish meatballs

According to reports, the furniture major plans to invest $1.5 billion in India, and has already spent close to $750 million on procuring sites for four stores. It also promises to create direct jobs for 800 people, and half of them will be women.

Headquartered in The Netherlands, IKEA designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture, kitchen appliances and home accessories.

The company had earlier said it planned to open 25 stores in India by 2025.

After Hyderabad, outlets will come up in Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi, and there are also expansion plans to Pune, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Surat and Kolkata.

Spread over 5 lakh square feet, bigger than the Hyderabad store, the Mumbai outlet is likely to come up in 2019.

(With agency inputs)