Flat pack expansion: Ikea to reach 3bn people by middle of next decade
Ikea will reach almost half the world’s population by 2025 as it branches into South America and eleven other markets in the coming year.
The furniture giant, which grew retail sales by 4.5 per cent in the financial year ending August, said it would open stores in Estonia, Ukraine, Puerto Rico, Oman, Luxembourg, Macau and the Philippines for the first time, as well as four locations in Latin America.
Read more: Ikea accused of 'vicious' anti-union campaign
Group chief executive Torbjörn Lööf said: “By 2025, we have the potential to reach and interact with 3bn people. We will offer new and different ways to shop the Ikea product range – online, in remote locations and in city centres.
“We will introduce smaller store formats and offer a wide range of flexible and affordable services.”
The company expanded its e-commerce site into three new markets, and grew sales of products and services to €38.8bn (£33.9bn) over the last 12 months, while taking an important step into India.
Ikea Place, an app which lets customers see how furniture would look in their home, is the second most downloaded free augmented reality app in the world, according to data from Sensor Tower.
Read more: ScS rolls out rising profits for investors in full-year results
The furniture chain sold 6.4m of its legendary Billy bookcases, 92m LED bulbs, and 1m of its new vegetarian hot dogs – launched two months back – over the year.
It also opened 19 new stores, taking its total to 422, and welcomed 957m visitors in 50 markets.
The Swedish giant reaffirmed a commitment to reduce its climate footprint of each product by 70 per cent per and will remove all single-use plastics from its range.