Ikea, the world's largest furniture retailer from Sweden, on Thursday said it will open its second store in the country in Navi Mumbai on Friday.

The new store is its first big format store in Maharashtra, spanning over 5.3 lakh sq ft and situated near the Turbhe local railway station and stocks over 7,000 home furnishing products.

Peter Betzel, CEO and chief sustainability officer at Ikea - India told reporters that Mumbai is the first omnichannel market for them.

We remain invested and committed to India and stand for the long-term, he said at conference call announcing the store launch.

IKEA in an official statement said that the safety of customers and co-workers is its first priority. “To provide a safe shopping experience during COVID times, it is taking a number of extra precautions from its global best practices and relevant learnings from its Hyderabad operations. To ensure good social distancing, IKEA will initially have a cap on the number of visitors to the store through prior registration on its website, by which customers will be allotted a day and time slot to visit the store. The company is putting together a whole process that will be released soon to the public,” said the statement.

The Navi Mumbai store will house the largest children's area 'Sm land' in Ikea globally, along with one of its largest 1,000-seater restaurants with almost 100 per cent locally-sourced food range, the company said.

Betzel reiterated Ikea's planned investment of Rs 6,000 crore by 2030, by when it aims to meet 25 million people in Maharashtra.

The new store will provide over 6,000 jobs, of which 50 per cent will be women.

Ikea India opened its first retail store in Hyderabad in August 2018, followed by online stores in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Pune.

It will open two smaller format stores in Mumbai in 2021.