Why IKEA Product Development Centre Matters for India explores how the Bengaluru facility reflects India’s growing role in IKEA’s global business.
For more than four decades, India has been part of IKEA’s global sourcing network. Over the years, that relationship has steadily expanded. Today, IKEA sources from India, operates a growing retail business in the country and works with Indian suppliers across a wide range of home furnishing categories.
The recent establishment of IKEA’s new Product Development Centre (PDC) in Bengaluru
marks another milestone in that journey.
As only the fourth facility of its kind in IKEA’s global network, alongside in Sweden, China
and Vietnam, the centre reflects the growing importance of India within the company’s
business—not only as a sourcing destination and consumer market, but increasingly as a
location for product development and innovation.
According to Oskar Lindkvist, Director of IKEA Product Development Centre India, the
decision was driven by a combination of market potential, supplier capability and talent.
“We see India as an important future market where the customer base will continue to grow. At the same time, we have a strong supplier base here and access to talented people
who can contribute to product development,” he says.
Taken together, those three factors explain why India is becoming increasingly important
within IKEA’s global business. Few countries offer a large and growing consumer market, a
mature manufacturing base, and access to engineering and product-development talent at
the same time. That combination matters because India is no longer only a place where
products are made. It is also one of IKEA’s most important growth markets.
For a retailer whose philosophy is built around creating well-designed, sustainable and affordable products for the many, bringing product development closer to the customer is a
logical next step.
Bringing Product Development Closer to the Market
The Bengaluru centre currently has a team of 14, consisting of product developers,
managers, engineers, marketing communication specialists and packaging experts. They are currently working on around 100 products, and over time that number will go up to 500, underlining IKEA’s long-term ambitions behind the investment.
The centre’s role is not to source products or select suppliers. Those responsibilities continue to sit with IKEA’s sourcing organisation, which currently works with around 40
home furnishing suppliers in India. Instead, the IKEA Product Development Centre focuses
on developing products closer to both suppliers and consumers.
According to Lindkvist, one of Bengaluru’s advantages is that IKEA’s retail, sourcing and
product-development teams are all co-located in the city. “This blue box structure of the
value chain set-up will allow the design and development team to walk onto the shop floor
and see their products on display the same day they go on sale.”
Until recently, products were developed primarily by IKEA Sweden, sometimes in collaboration with key markets. The Bengaluru centre gives India a more direct role in that
process, supporting the development of home furnishing products while drawing on local
consumer insights, supplier capabilities and materials.
That may prove increasingly valuable as the company expands its presence in the country.
India is not a single market. Consumer preferences vary widely across regions, income
groups and housing formats. Expectations around materials, storage, durability and
affordability can differ significantly from those in Europe and other mature markets.
The way IKEA approaches product development is also distinctive. According to Lindkvist
every project begins with understanding ‘life at home’ and identifying a real customer need. A target price is then defined early in the process, with designers and engineers working backwards to achieve the right balance of function, form, quality and sustainability. Close collaboration with suppliers helps ensure that products can be manufactured efficiently and at scale.
Development timelines vary depending on the complexity of the product. “Less complex
products can move from idea to shop floor in around six months, while furniture products
typically require longer development cycles.”
From India for India to India for the World
For years, global furniture companies largely followed a familiar model: products are developed in one market and then adapted for others. The Bengaluru centre allows IKEA to explore the reverse possibility—that products developed with Indian consumers, Indian materials and Indian manufacturing capabilities in mind may also find acceptance elsewhere.
One example of this approach can be seen in IKEA’s growing interest in mango wood. The
company has already introduced products such as the Norrvaga coffee table using the material and is exploring additional furniture categories.
For IKEA, mango wood is not merely another raw material. It represents an opportunity to
develop products around resources that are abundant in India, familiar to Indian consumers and supported by an established manufacturing ecosystem. The significance extends beyond a single product range.
“This is the first time we are exploring mango wood at the scale we are doing right now,”
says Lindkvist. “The ambition could be that we export it out of India as well. It is India to the world.”
That ambition aligns with a view previously expressed by Linn Roslund, Managing Director,
IKEA Supply South Asia. “If a product is successful in India with Indian raw material, it will be successful everywhere,” she observed during a conversation at India Kitchen Congress.
Taken together, these statements offer an interesting perspective on India’s role within IKEA. The country is no longer viewed only as a place where products can be sourced efficiently. Nor is it merely a retail market with growing potential. Increasingly, India is
becoming a place where ideas, materials and consumer insights can contribute to products
with wider relevance.
The IKEA Product Development Centre provides a mechanism for bringing those elements
together. Whether it is mango wood, bamboo, jute or other locally available materials, the
larger objective appears to be the same: developing products that are rooted in local realities while remaining scalable within a global business.
What It Means for Indian Manufacturers
For India’s furniture and home furnishing industry, the significance of the Product Development Centre extends well beyond IKEA. It offers a glimpse into the capabilities that global brands may increasingly seek from their supplier networks.
Traditionally, suppliers won business through quality, cost competitiveness and reliable delivery. Those factors remain important and will continue to matter. But product development introduces another dimension.
Companies developing products closer to the market need suppliers who can contribute more than production capacity. They need partners who understand materials, can suggest
improvements, solve manufacturing challenges and participate in the development process
itself. In other words, value increasingly comes not only from making products, but from helping improve them. IKEA’s approach to supplier development reflects this thinking.
The company currently works with around 40 home furnishing suppliers in India and views
these relationships as long-term partnerships rather than purely transactional arrangements. Potential suppliers are evaluated on manufacturing capability, quality,
compliance and their ability to meet IKEA’s sustainability requirements. Existing suppliers
receive support through training, peer-learning initiatives and performance-improvement
programmes designed to help them grow alongside the business. The objective is to build a
supplier base capable of meeting the company’s long-term requirements around quality,
affordability and sustainability.
The IKEA Product Development Centre adds another layer to that relationship. By bringing
product developers closer to suppliers, IKEA can work more collaboratively on materials,
manufacturing processes and product improvements. The result is a closer connection
between the people designing products and the people making them.
For Indian manufacturers, that creates an opportunity. As global supply chains evolve, companies that invest in design, engineering, product development and material expertise
are likely to occupy a stronger position than those competing only on price.
The shift will not happen overnight. But the direction is becoming increasingly clear. The
manufacturers best placed to benefit from the next phase of industry growth may be those
that can contribute knowledge alongside production.
A Natural Next Step
The Bengaluru Product Development Centre is still in its early days. Its team is growing, new capabilities are being built and many of its long-term ambitions remain works in progress. Yet the logic behind the investment is easy to understand.
Over the years, India has become increasingly important to IKEA—not only as a sourcing
destination, but also as a retail market and a partner in building a more sustainable supply
chain. Product development is the next step in that evolution.
For IKEA, the centre creates an opportunity to develop products closer to both consumers
and suppliers. For Indian manufacturers, it signals the growing importance of capabilities
that go beyond production alone.
And for the industry at large, it offers a glimpse of how global furniture companies may
increasingly engage with India in the years ahead—not only as a place where products are
produced, but also as a place where they are developed.
That may prove to be the centre’s most significant contribution—not just to IKEA, but to
India’s evolving furniture industry.
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