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Tag: ikea

  • Ikano Centres to build drive-thru F&B facility next to Ikea Batu Kawan

    Ikano Centres to build drive-thru F&B facility next to Ikea Batu Kawan

    Building on the first phase opening in December last year, Ikano Centres, part of IKEA Southeast Asia, is excited to launch a new drive-thru concept next to IKEA Batu Kawan in North Malaysia. Focusing on food and beverage (F&B), the drive-thru will be the natural next phase in the development of its meeting place that embraces the new age of convenience.

    Expected to be fully operational by mid-2021, the drive-thru component will complement the current dine-in IKEA restaurant and F&B tenants. The latest addition will see more food options across the 200,744 square feet gross leasable area.

    “Malaysians have a great love for food and appreciate the convenience,” said Christian Roejkjaer, Managing Director of IKEA Southeast Asia & Mexico. “For many, drive-thrus have become a quintessential part of their lifestyle and may play a crucial role in our ‘new normal’. Building our first drive-thru concept in Batu Kawan is one way for us to create a safe and positive space for the community to come out and enjoy their favorite food.”

    IKEA Southeast Asia’s Shopping Centre and Mixed-Use Director, Christian Olofsson added, “We look forward to welcoming more partners that share the same community-spirit, to further build a retail destination that Malaysians and tourists will want to visit.”

    Ikano Centres is also pleased to welcome its first partner to complement the on-the-go concept – McDonald’s Malaysia. Taking up approximately 35,000 square feet space, the quick-service restaurant at Batu Kawan will be Penang’s 16th free-standing McDonald’s Malaysia outlet.

    According to Azmir Jaafar, Managing Director and Local Operating Partner of McDonald’s Malaysia, this outlet will reflect the iconic fun, bright and comfortable atmosphere that most Malaysians have come to love.

    “At McDonald’s Malaysia, we continue to cater to changing trends among customers who are increasingly seeking convenience, as well as fast and friendly service to complement their on-the-go lifestyles. We are excited to expand our drive-thru footprint to Batu Kawan, where customers can now enjoy ‘feel-good-moments’ just by conveniently driving by and ordering their favorite meals from a McDonald’s restaurant window,” said Azmir.

    Also, Ikano Centres is in dialogue with petrol station operators to meet the high demand within the growing township of Aspen Vision City in Batu Kawan.

    The latest anchored-by-IKEA commercial development is a joint-venture between IKEA Southeast Asia and Malaysia’s Aspen Group to develop Aspen Vision City, transforming Batu Kawan into an iconic hub in the Northern region of Malaysia.

    “Batu Kawan’s development has been tremendously progressing towards becoming the third satellite city of Penang. We are elated to welcome another well-known international brand, McDonald’s to Aspen Vision City’s (AVC) neighborhood. As a globally famous quick-service restaurant chain, their presence in AVC will surely be a crowd-puller, which also caters to a workforce of approximately 16,000 at the Batu Kawan Industrial Park.

    Earlier this year, we also saw students joining the newly launched The Ship Campus as well as the University of Wollongong KDU Batu Kawan Campus. Other projects to be completed are Vertu Resort, Vivo Executive Apartment, and Viluxe with 3,132 units of residential units which will add traction to AVC,” said Dato’ Murly Manokharan, President & Group CEO of Aspen Group.

    Within the region, IKEA Southeast Asia owns and operates five shopping centers anchored by IKEA. Both the blue-box home-furnishing stores and its meeting places are committed to serving the evolving needs of millions of visitors to create a better everyday life for many people.

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  • Ikea starts opening second-hand stores

    Ikea starts opening second-hand stores

    Ikea is to open its second second-hand furniture store in its home country, Sweden, expanding its commitment to the circular economy concept.

    The store, located in the ReTuna shopping mall in Eskilstuna, will stock used Ikea furniture bought back from customers, repaired and refurbished, giving old Ikea furniture a second life instead of ending up at recycling stations or in a landfill.

    The new outlet is scheduled to launch later this year, with the launch billed as part of Ikea’s strategy to become a fully circular business by 2030.

    “By testing new ideas, we take another step towards our goal of becoming completely circular and making it easier for more people to live a life within the planet’s boundaries,” the company said in a statement. “Our second-hand service is one of several examples of our sustainability work.”

    The second-hand concept was piloted in the UK last year together with a textile recycling scheme. In Sweden, the former is now available in all stores except one in Stockholm.

    Last year, the home furnishing giant launched a subscription program in some regions, allowing customers to rent home furniture.

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  • Ikea Hong Kong launches mooncakes for Mid-Autumn Festival

    Ikea Hong Kong launches mooncakes for Mid-Autumn Festival

    Swedish furniture retailer Ikea has yet again stepped out of its aisle, expanding its food range with localized mooncakes for the Hong Kong market.

    Launching four fruit-flavored ‘snowy’ mooncakes (with non-baked glutinous rice flour as a shell), the mooncakes feature Hongkongers’ favorite mango and chocolate flavors, along with elderflower with kumquat and lingonberry with cream cheese – an homage to its signature meatball jam.

    Priced at HKD$49 (US$6.30) per box of four, the relatively affordable mooncakes will be available across all four Ikea branches in the territory.

    The retailer has also been expanding outside of furniture and working on building its offer of food along with designer homewares and even clothing recently. Last month it launched a range designed in partnership with fashion label and cafe operator Greyhound in Thailand.

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  • Ikea proposes one-third price cut by boosting local sourcing

    Ikea proposes one-third price cut by boosting local sourcing

    Ikea India is proposing an economical solution by sourcing materials from the local market to cut down the budget, according to The Economic Times.

    The company said it is talking to the government and other players in the market to form furniture hubs. By sourcing wood locally, including Sheesham and bamboo, Ikea expects to cut prices by a third.

    The home-furnishing giant has been using wood imported from Europe.

    “We have had to accelerate our work to new categories and have had good success with metal, plastic and comfort categories, such as mattresses and sofas,” Kavitha Rao, country commercial manager of India, told The Economic Times.

    As part of its strategy to boost affordability in the India market, the brand has lowered product prices in certain categories, including chairs, toys, sofas, and bookshelves.

    “Local sourcing remains a key driver of affordability and over a third of the products under new lower prices are made in India,” he said.

    Entering India in 2018, Ikea India has increased its local sourcing from single digits to 20-25 percent. Local sourcing is a condition for many multinational companies to gain approval to open retail stores in India.

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  • Ikea Korea sales growth

    Ikea Korea sales growth

    Ikea’s business in South Korea has reported 32.6-per-cent sales growth over the past fiscal year despite the impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

    The success of the retail business over the period has been attributed to a surge in interest in home furnishings as people remain at home to avoid the pandemic, according to Ikea Korea country retail manager Fredrik Johansson.

    Customer numbers at Ikea stores also increased by 31 percent during the period to 12.3 million people, with online shoppers increasing by 14 percent to 44.7 million.

    The firm has made concerted efforts to market goods at affordable prices and engage in remote sales efforts. It is also about to commence a new sustainable home-furniture marketing campaign to support climate action within Korea, along with strategies to buy back and resell used furniture to replace 20 percent of the firm’s delivery vans with electric vehicles by the end of the next fiscal year.

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  • Ikea Thailand and Greyhound collaborate on designer homewares range

    Ikea Thailand and Greyhound collaborate on designer homewares range

    Ikea Thailand has launched a limited collection with local retailer Greyhound Original, which operates fashion shops and restaurants in Southeast Asia.

    Called “Sammankoppla”, which means interconnect or unify, the Ikea x Greyhound collection offers furniture and home accessories for small-space living.

    “Since multi-function and creativity is key in order to enable both a small-space living solution and an expressive design piece, we turned to Greyhound Original,” says Michael Nikolic, creative leader at Ikea Sweden.

    Designed by two Thai fashion designers from Greyhound,  Bhanu Inkawat, and Vitchukorn Chokedeetaweeanan, the Sammankoppla collection features bold patterns found in traditional Thai weaving.

    “Incorporating recycled materials that have their own history adds to this, with sustainability and creative re-purposing processes being key to the Sammankoppla collection,” said Clotilde Passalacqua, interior design manager at Ikea UK and Ireland.

    The Ikea x Greyhound collection includes a geometric cushion, a reusable carrier bag with “a unique twist on Ikea’s Frakta bag” and jug-shaped light.

    Launched in 1980 with a tagline “Basic with a twist”, Greyhound has marked its footprint in overseas markets including Hong Kong, Shanghai and London.

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  • Ikea City store in Shanghai opens, a Chinese first for Swedish retailer

    Ikea City store in Shanghai opens, a Chinese first for Swedish retailer

    Swedish home-furnishing giant Ikea opens an Ikea City store in Shanghai today, its first such outlet in China.

    The Ikea City opening comes after the Ikea Tmall flagship launch in March as part of the brand’s strategy to broaden the ways it reaches Chinese customers, making the brand more accessible.

    Located in Jing’an district, the store spans three floors and occupies 3000sqm. It will feature a limited range of about 3500 products.

    “We’re seeking to diversify store formats, including online channels as well, to complement each other in order to test, learn and gain feedback from customers to fuel future growth,” Francois Brenti, VP of Ikea China said.

    “We have seen solid growth of online channels following the pandemic and we expect this to continue in the future,” he said.

    The new Ikea City Shanghai store will take the brand’s number of stores in the city to five.

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  • Ikea expands famous meatball range to include plant-based option

    Ikea expands famous meatball range to include plant-based option

    The Swedish retailer Ikea’s famous meatballs have gone vegetarian with a new plant-based option going on sale in Europe, and headed for Asia Pacific soon.

    Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, the current packaged Ikea frozen meatballs and other foods have gone on sale in Market Place supermarkets operated by Dairy Farm Group, which is also the Hong Kong and Macau operator of Ikea stores.

    The ‘plantballs’ from Ikea are made with fresh ingredients such as yellow pea protein, oats, onion, apples and potatoes to recreate the classic dish for the health-conscious market. Ikea said in a statement that the new plant ball only has 4 percent of the carbon footprint of the original food.

    The new range will launch in the EU next month before becoming available in Ikea stores in North America, the Middle East and the Asia Pacific after a few months.

    “At Ikea, we sell more than 1 billion meatballs every year. Imagine if we could get some of our many meatball lovers to choose the plant ball instead. If we were to convert about 20 percent of our meatball sales to plant balls that would mean around the 8-per-cent reduction of our climate footprint for the food business at Ikea,” said Sharla Halvorson, health & sustainability manager for Ikea international.

    Ikea said it targets to inspire more consumers to have more sustainable eating and lifestyle habits that can create a positive impact to others and the environment.

    “In order to reduce the climate footprint of the Ikea food business, we need to reduce the number of traditional meatballs that we sell. With the new plant ball we can now offer meat lovers a more sustainable alternative – without compromising on the Ikea meatball experience that is loved by so many,” explained Sharla.

    It will be available at the Ikea restaurants which will be served with mashed potatoes, lingonberries and cream sauce. Shoppers can also purchase a bag of frozen plant balls from the Swedish Food Market to cook at home.

    “In the development phase of the plant ball our key objective has been to recreate the meat-like taste and texture, only using plant-based ingredients. We have tried and tested different ingredients and methods and we are very pleased with the final results,” said Alexander Magnusson, chef and project leader at Ikea food.

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  • Ikea Manila opening delayed after construction issues

    Ikea Manila opening delayed after construction issues

    Construction interruptions have delayed the expected opening date of the long-awaited Ikea Manila store.

    Ikea Southeast Asia has released a short video on LinkedIn summarising the company’s progress in various markets. It says that the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic meant construction had to be suspended.

    The new store, the first Ikea in the Philippines and located next to SM’s Mall of Asia, was announced two years ago and due to open this year. No set date has been given as yet, only “by next year”.

    Work has now resumed on the site after several weeks of closures due to Covid-19 situation. It appears from the video that the construction is already at the third floor of the project.

    Located in the Manila Bay area, the Ikea Pasay City occupies a 67,760sqm area which will make it the biggest Ikea store in the world.

    Meanwhile, Ikea says after a review of the Vietnam market, it now plans to open its first store there in Ho Chi Minh City, rather than Hanoi as originally planned. The country’s home-furnishing market is estimated at US$4.4 billion a year, with Ho Chi Minh accounting for a 18 percent share and Hanoi a lesser 11 percent.

    The company is also working on other infrastructures at other stores around the region such as the development of a multi-story car park and “foodwalk” at its Mega Bangna store in Bangkok.

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  • Ikea Home of Tomorrow urban concept unveiled in Poland

    Ikea Home of Tomorrow urban concept unveiled in Poland

    Home furnishings giant Ikea has introduced its new environmentally friendly concept store in Szczecin, Poland, dubbed the Ikea Home of Tomorrow.

    The new store concept was designed for customers who are looking for a zero-waste lifestyle

    Located in a 120 year-old building, Ikea Home of Tomorrow houses a soil-free home garden featuring a wide range of plants, including tomatoes, strawberries, herbs, and even spirulina. Ikea customers can create their own in-door ‘farms’ such as microgarden, aquaponic farm, spirulina farm or aeroponic farm.

    Ikea Home of Tomorrow also introduces a metabolic process where waste can be used in many different ways. For example, coffee grounds can be composted and used as fertiliser or to make candles and cosmetics.

    The Creative Zone offers household equipment for reparation and modification which customers can use to give worn-out furniture a second life. Meanwhile, the store features a kitchen called Planning Space where visitors can learn to make vegetarian dishes from ingredients taken from the farm.

    “We wish to encourage the residents of Szczecin to take responsibility for waste,” said Gustaw Jakubowski, Ikea, who was responsible for bringing Ikea Home of Tomorrow to life.

    “I believe that only by starting to vote with our wallets for environment-friendly solutions we will create a substantive step towards sustainable life.”

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  • Ikea opens first compact store in Tokyo, Japan

    Ikea opens first compact store in Tokyo, Japan

    Ikea Japan has opened its first concept downtown store in Tokyo.

    Ikea Harajuku, modeled on smaller compact inner-city Ikea stores popping up in Paris and New York, targets urban apartment dwellers with a smaller range of about 9500 goods selected from its big-box destination shops.

    The new Ikea Japan store is located adjacent to the Uniqlo Harajuku which opened about a week ago, occupying a two-story, 2500sqm space.

    “One of the store’s keys focuses will be sustainability and circular living, with a buyback service and sustainably sourced food”, the company said in a statement.

    Besides featuring homewares products for small-living areas, the Ikea Harajuku houses a Swedish Cafe, where customers can find a Swedish flatbread menu, and Swedish Combini which offers a wide range of snacks and beverages including cups of plant-based instant noodles.

    Plans to open the Ikea Harajuku store were revealed two years ago. The store was scheduled to open on April 25 this year, however that was postponed until June 8 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

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  • Ikea Singapore plans opening new concept store at Jem mall

    Ikea Singapore plans opening new concept store at Jem mall

    Ikea Singapore is to open Southeast Asia’s first ‘small-store’ concept at Jem mall in the city’s west.

    The announcement today follows news last week that local department store Robinsons was vacating the space. The change of anchor is a perfect example of how consumer shopping preferences – and thus the balance of mall tenancies – is reshaping the modern retail market.

    The new Ikea Singapore store will open next year, taking up about 6500sqm across three floors of Jem, which is managed by Lendlease. It will be the Swedish furniture and home decor chain’s third shop in the city.

    “This store will bring us closer to millions of customers,” said Jaap Doornbos, Ikea retail director for Singapore & Vietnam. “This will be the first time we are establishing a smaller Ikea store format as a tenant within a shopping center in this region.”

    The ‘small-store’ concept is still relatively new globally. Unlike the giant standalone stores Ikea is known for, with their winding pathway layout, the Jem outlet will combine the full Ikea product range into one department. It will not feature a children’s playground, but will include an Ikea restaurant serving Swedish meatballs and fried chicken wings, among other items.

    “We see a bright future ahead for our store at Jem,” said Sebastian Hylving, property & expansion director at Ikea Southeast Asia & Mexico.

    “Jem is one of four malls connected to the Jurong Gateway, linked to public transport. At Jem, Lendlease has curated a combination of great F&B offer with fashion, groceries and entertainment to create an everyday meeting place for the many people.”

    Hylving says the two Ikea big-box stores, located at Tampines and Alexandra, attract almost 7 million visits each year.

    Ikea is reaping the benefits of renewed consumer interest in making homes more comfortable during the Covid-19 era, and the need for furniture and supplies needed for working from home.

    Ng Hsueh Ling, Lendlease Singapore MD and chief investment officer for Asia, said the company looked forward to bringing a first-to-market lifestyle concept to its mall.

    “We are continually rejuvenating our tenancy mix and bringing new experiences to them.”

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  • Ikea stores record strong footfall as life eases back to normal in China

    Ikea stores record strong footfall as life eases back to normal in China

    Furniture and homewares giant Ikea is reporting a quick return of customer footfall to its stores in China as they reopen after the Covid-19 crisis.

    The company opened another three of its large-format stores in Mainland China last week, including one in Wuhan city, and others in Germany and Israel, as movement restrictions were eased. More stores are scheduled to reopen this week.

    Ingka Group, one of Ikea’s largest retail operating divisions, owns 45 shopping centers in China and Europe. It reported that customer footfall in the Chinese centers was back to the level of between 70 and 80 percent of the numbers at the same time last year.

    Shopper confidence there was “recovering rapidly” a spokesperson for the company said.

    Most Ikea China stores have now reopened and some have been trading since the end of last month.

    However, the picture was a little less rosy in German, where 40 of its mall’s 57 tenants had reopened and visitor numbers were at 63 percent of a year earlier.

    During the closures, Ingka waived rent and service charges for tenants and launched e-commerce initiatives to drive traffic to tenants’ websites. The company also helped tenants out with click-and-collect and home-delivery services.

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  • Ikea Macau opens – with a two-week wait to get inside

    Ikea Macau opens – with a two-week wait to get inside

    Ikea Macau opened its doors yesterday, the first of the Swedish furniture homeware retailer’s stores in Asia which does not feature the brand’s traditional one-way ‘winding path’ format.

    The 90,000sqft store, the territory’s first Ikea, opened at Nova Grande residence’s shopping mall in Taipa. It includes an Ikea Cafe, Swedish Food Market and has 600 parking spaces for customers.

    However, in line with government-mandated social-distancing requirements, the store is for the time being open only to shoppers who pre-register online, nominating a time slot, and who complete a mandatory Electronic Health Declaration Form in advance. No walk-in customers will be permitted. These measures will ensure the store limits the number of customers inside at any one time to minimize the risk of people contracting Covid-19.

    With the opening of the Ikea Macau store much anticipated by locals, who previously had to shop in Hong Kong stores and ship products back, all shopping slots for the first 14 days of trading were booked out before yesterday’s opening.

    Ikea Macau is operated by Dairy Farm Group, which also holds the Ikea license for Hong Kong, Taiwan and Indonesia.

    “Ikea is a fantastic and growing business and a very important part of the Dairy Farm family,” said CEO Ian McLeod in an email to Inside Retail Asia.

    “With the opening of this, our 13th store, we are delighted to be bringing Ikea’s unique home-furnishing experience to our customers in Macau with this innovative store.”

    Of the store’s 90,000sqft total footprint, about 60,000sqft is dedicated to retail space and 6000sqft to a dining area which seats 286. The Swedish Food Market & Bistro takes up about 2000sqft. It employs 120 staff and trades from 10am to 10pm daily.

    Store manager Jacklyn Tse said in a message to customers that now the Macau store is open, no further orders for Macau delivery will be accepted through Hong Kong stores. However, Macau customers can now shop or order online on both the Hong Kong and Macau sites and opt into local delivery, pick-up and assembly services.

    The first Ikea Hong Kong store opened in 1975. Today, there are five stores across the two territories – located at Causeway Bay, Kowloon Bay, Shatin, Tsuen Wan in Hong Kong, and now Taipa.

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  • Ikea calls for recommitment to climate change

    Ikea calls for recommitment to climate change

    Home furnishings giant Ikea has joined an alliance of key industry and political groups in calling for a renewed commitment to long-term climate change initiatives despite the immediate urgency of the coronavirus pandemic.

    The European Green Recovery Alliance includes more than 180 political decision-makers, business leaders, trade unions, NGOs and think tanks working to reinforce commitments to addressing climate change.

    “Even if the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus calls for urgent measures to mitigate the effects on people and business, we will not lose sight of our long-term goals,” said Inter Ikea Group CEO Torbjorn Loof. “We will continue to be long-term in everything we do and remain committed to our ambitious sustainability goals for 2030. This is not an ‘either/or’ situation, the challenging situation today makes us even more determined to accelerate our efforts to tackle climate change.”

    In a newsletter published on its website, Ikea reiterated its commitment to “continue to share knowledge and experience to help accelerate the transition toward a green economy in the wake of the coronavirus crisis”. The firm pledged to “share knowledge, examples and experience with lawmakers and participate actively in the Green Deal discussion for new policy and regulatory initiatives”.

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