2023-05-15 12:51:38
One billion in France, more than two billion in the United States: the time has come for investments at Ikea to win over even more customers, to whom the Swedish group intends to offer more “green” products and lower prices following the peak of ‘inflation.
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Sunday, on the eve of Choose France, a summit of international investors brought together by Emmanuel Macron in Versailles, Ikea unveiled 906 million euros in additional investments by 2026 in France. There will be added 377 million not yet allocated from a previous investment envelope which had not been entirely consumed.
Already at the end of April, Ikea had announced more than 2 billion euros in investments over three years to develop its presence in the United States.
“Ikea is doing really well today” and “the supply chains are normalizing” despite an “incredibly complicated” and inflationary context, explained in an interview with AFP Jesper Brodin, boss of the Ingka holding company. , which includes most Ikea stores worldwide and represents more than 90% of its total turnover.
The conquest of new customers is the watchword following a difficult year 2022, marked by inflation and the hasty withdrawal from Russia following the invasion of Ukraine, the financial impact of which has however been “balanced”, according to Ms. Brodin.
France is “our third market” in the world and “we think we can grow more there,” he explained.
“We are investing in existing sites and also new locations” to “make our offer even more accessible to as many people as possible” while “accelerating” sustainable development efforts, detailed during the same interview the CEO of Ikea France , Johan Laurell.
The kit furniture specialist notably announced the opening of a new logistics center in Toulouse (South of France), in 2024, and confirmed a similar establishment in 2026 in Limay (Paris region) with “very probably” new jobs, according to Mr. Laurell.
The envelope also covers the purchase of the Parisian shopping center Italie Deux, announced at the beginning of April, to relocate the store in the La Madeleine district and its employees there.
In the United States, where “there are more people who do not have access to an Ikea store” than in France, the expansion is mainly geographical, with the opening of eight stores and nine points of sale. in the country.
To attract customers, Ikea is also betting on ever more competitive prices following having “had to pass on certain increases”.
Fluctuations and uncertainties along the supply chain persist but “in a few months we should be able to be where we were before the pandemic”, according to the leader of Ingka.
As a result, “some of our costs are falling”, notes Mr. Brodin, who therefore promises to pass on these reductions to the receipts, following the announcement in December 2021 of a price increase of 9% on average.
Lower prices “is not only our prediction, but also our mission,” he insisted.
To win more customers, “we have really become an omnichannel company”, where physical stores and online sales complement each other, welcomed the director.
Ikea also emphasizes the sustainable development commitments of its investments: participation in a solar park project in France, delivery by the Seine in Paris, electrification of vehicles, etc.
The group will also “support” the Dutch start-up RetourMatras in its project “to increase mattress recycling capacity in France by 500,000 units”, according to a press release.
In this context, Mr. Brodin said he was in favor of a “revaluation of public subsidies” in France.
“For example, we are going to take back mattresses, so we are asking that subsidies for incineration be stopped,” argued Mr. Brodin.
The European “Green Deal”, he says, is in this context “an incredible, and I would even say revolutionary effort” to “support and encourage the transition to a zero carbon economy” in the face of the American “Inflation Reduction Act”, source of “fears of domestic market favoritism” across the Atlantic.
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