We spoke to Ingka Centres head of global development Sebastian Hylving to hear what’s planned for the Lykli Noida centre and why India is such an attractive market for businesses right now.
Ikea’s sister company Ingka Centres has big plans in Asia. The business is in the midst of a huge push into the region with the opening of a new centre in Shanghai and has just announced plans for its first ‘eatertainment’ concept centre in India.
Set to open in 2028, the Lykli Noida centre in Uttar Pradesh will blend Scandinavian and Indian retail concepts with dining and entertainment alongside office space, a hotel and more.
We spoke to Ingka Centres head of global development Sebastian Hylving to hear what’s planned for the centre and why India is such an attractive market for businesses right now.
Tell us about the site and location of Lykli Noida and why you chose it.
India is one of our focus markets for growth. It presents a lot of big opportunities and we’re not the only business viewing India and the big cities here. We selected the site for Lykli Noida 15km east of Delhi where there are two existing metro stations already.
For us, connectivity is important and it’s linked to sustainability; the metro is a sustainable way of travelling. If you come in by car then you can also enjoy EV charging in our meeting places.
This is a quite substantial development. The gross lease area is around 135,000 sq ft, and we have two towers and 90 levels where we have offices, a hotel and a meeting place.
So it’s a mixed-use development focused on retail, leisure and entertainment.
You say India is one of your focus markets, why is that?
India’s middle class is growing and they have aspirations. And that is what retailers and developers are all leveraging now. For us, we want to be part of the local community and we want to understand their specific needs and desires. Based on our global footprint, we can leverage that global knowledge and local experience in putting together an offer that is attractive to the local market
India is a big country, but the land is quite scarce in good locations like this one where you have the connection to the metro and the highway. Noida is quite well-planned when it comes to infrastructure. It’s part of Uttar Pradesh, which is a really big region, and it’s also part of greater Delhi. So it is a satellite city, you could say, to Delhi. It’s modern and the standard of living is relatively high in the market as well.
What are some of the considerations with regard to cultural differences that you’ve had to incorporate in the offer of this centre?
The group size for going out in Europe is quite a bit smaller than in Asia. Typically you have an extended family and you meet in a different way.
In some markets, you meet at home, but in other markets you use the meeting place as your second living room because you’re maybe living with parents.
In Europe many 18- or 20-year-olds move out and then have their own space to invite people over to meet with friends. But if you’re living with your parents, or maybe three generations, then you need to find other spaces to meet and congregate.
Also, climate-wise, when it’s very warm and humid in some markets, the free aircon in a meeting place is quite important – so the offer needs to be tailored.
Bollywood is huge in India, so the cinema industry is really big and we’ll of course have a big cinema. I think a lot of the cinema halls in Europe can be quite clinical, like they’ve been designed by an engineer, but here it will be much more of an experience and will be connected to food and drink. We will have everything for local tastebuds, but we will also have international influence too.
When you find those local mom-and-pop stores and co-create with them, take them to a larger unit and build a concept together that’s fantastic and that’s when you can create something unique.
What about in the way it’s designed?
India is beautiful, it’s colorful and it can be perceived as a bit chaotic sometimes, but it’s got so much life, and there’s so much bustle going on. It’s a really different world from what you’re used to in Europe and you need to understand that when you enter the market.
With the architecture we have a new opportunity to create an iconic landmark. The building represents two rivers coming together in harmony, and then a banyan tree and the powerful sense of belonging that represents.
Most malls are a sandstone color and everything is beige. If you look at India, it’s more colorful so we’ve taken a lot of inspiration from that.
What we also try to do is to take a Scandinavian approach. We take in greenery and we take in a lot of light, and we try to create space where you have a sense of belonging, where you want to meet, to make this a second living room for for the community in Noida.
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