The Swedish giant of the Ikea furniture opened Thursday with a large fanfare of a new store in the heart of London, in Oxford Street, the best -known purchasing artery in the United Kingdom, “culmination” of a strategy aimed at taking the brand to the city centers. “This is the culmination of seven years of work,” said Tolga Öncü, director of Operations of Ingka, which brings together most brand stores in the world and represents more than 90% of its turnover. The manager says that he is satisfied with these “urban formats” that already exist in Paris, Stockholm, Vienne or Tokyo, confirming the company’s strategy, founded in 1943 by the late Ingvar Kambrad, to continue on this path.
In London, customers can directly buy about 3,500 references, but not the imposing furniture, which must be delivered (for finance) or recover in traditional stores on the outskirts. The London store of 4,600 m², much smaller than traditional stores, is installed in the old emblematic building of the Fast Fashion Topshop brand, bought 378 million pounds in 2021. After the pandemic, Oxford Street, the main purchasing artery of the British capital had changed its face, suffering the closure of the phraser of the department store.
The United Kingdom is the fourth brand market
Hundreds of people were filled from Thursday in the halls of the Ikea store, to the deafening sound of a DJ, a crowd transported by an unusual summer temperature in the British capital. The brand with 45 billion billing continues to bet on your physical points of sale despite the rise of online purchases, which counted 26% of its turnover in 2023/2024, against 7% five years earlier.
The United Kingdom is the fourth market in Ikea, behind Germany, which comes first, then the United States and France. If Tolga Öncü affirms that Brexit “things have not really changed,” he said, on the other hand, “closely following” the evolution of the commercial war launched by Donald Trump.
It emphasizes that Ikea has been studying for years “the possibility of producing more locally, especially in the United States, especially for bulky products, to avoid sending them from Europe.” “Depending on the conclusions to come, we will have to see if our current organization remains the best to keep prices as low as possible,” he added.
Source: BFM TV
