Working on sustainable model for sourcing in India: IKEA

New Delhi: Swedish furniture retail giant IKEA Thursday said it is working on a long-term sustainable model for raw material sourcing in India.

"There is no short cut for long-term sustainable sourcing. So sourcing takes time, and in that sense, we need to build technology and we need to build a sustainable way to source raw materials.

"We have very high demand when it comes to the way we do sourcing and this is exactly what we are working within India now," IKEA India CEO Juvencio Maeztu said on the sidelines of India Economic Convention.

He said, for IKEA, it is important that sourcing is sustainable and competitive so that it can cater not only to the domestic market in India but also for exports worldwide.

Maeztu also said that the company would have to develop new technologies in the way "we want to use new materials like bamboo or particle board.

On the timeline for opening of the company's first store in India, he expressed hope that from 2017 onwards "we can offer good products with good design and good quality".

The company had earlier said that it will invest Rs 10,500 crore in the country to open 25 stores over a decade and has already acquired land in Hyderabad where it is most likely to open its first store.