GATI-KWE, a leader in express distribution services has emerged as the chosen logistic partner for the world’s largest furniture retailer IKEA’s first India store in Hyderabad.
The partnership will enable IKEA to efficiently manage home deliveries of IKEA products (Do-It-Yourself) sold from its first ever India store to customer homes across Telangana. GATI-KWE through its unmatched know-how and technology sailed through an intense competitive process to qualify as the logistics service provider that meets IKEA’s global standards. The overall scope of partnership is a combination of contract logistics, last-mile distribution and reverse logistics.
A vital facet of the solution is the use of environment-friendly fleet which will deliver the products to IKEA customers. This not only helps IKEA and GATI-KWE on their sustainability goals but the initiative also stands to prove the viability of smart green solutions in the Indian logistics sector.
GATI-KWE’s portfolio is well-diversified with years of experience in special “white glove” services to handle everything from bulky furniture to delicate art pieces to food-delivery across India. GATI-KWE has tailored a customized process for handling IKEA shipments that requires time-definite delivery which needs an even more sophisticated logistics design compared with the more commonplace day-definite delivery process. This partnership with IKEA opens new frontiers in theB2C segment for GATI-KWE.
Patrik Antoni, Deputy Country Manager, IKEA India said, “To meet the Indian customers’ service expectations home delivery will be an important component of our offer. As a company, we have ambitious plans to adopt electric vehicles across our operations and in our first year in India, around 20% of our customer delivery fleet will comprise of electric vehicles. That number is planned to increase to 40% in the second year and 60% in the third year of the IKEA’s operations. We will be installing charging pods at our IKEA store in Hyderabad to encourage both our employees and customers to switch to electric vehicles. The initiative concerns our own vehicles at our stores and offices, but also includes our partners who take care of our home deliveries. We strive towards becoming Climate Positive in our own operations by investing in renewable energy, focusing on clean air initiatives and turning waste into resource. This is a great start for IKEA in Hyderabad to be People and Planet positive and be part of the sustainable movement. We would like the many people in India to feel that “IKEA cares for India, for the community and for me.”
Mr. Mahendra Agarwal, Founder & CEO at Gati, said, “We are delighted to be chosen as the integrated logistics partner of IKEA’s first store in India. We aim to bring a smile on every IKEA customer through our services. We look forward towards the possibility of growing this relationship further with IKEA as it expands into other geographies within India.”
