IKEA plans to double retail presence in Australia

Home furnishing retailer IKEA is reportedly planning to open small urban stores and sell products online, in order to double retail presence in Australia.

As part of the expansion, the company plans to increase its store count from the current eight to 22 over the next few years, Fairfax Media reported. It has plans to build another three or four 30,000m2 mega-stores and as many as 12 small-format stores less than one third of their size.

Through small-format stores, customers can purchase products in-store and collect products ordered online from the e-commerce site.

IKEA is currently testing small-format stores in Spain, Germany, the UK and Tasmania.

IKEA Australia country manager David Hood anticipates increase in sales from $733m in 2014 to at least $1.8bn by 2020 as a result of new stores and online sales.

Additionally, IKEA plans to build two distribution centres, including a 100,000 pallet multi-functional logistics centre, which would allow the company to reduce its shipping times by increasing its warehouse capacity from 1300 to almost 9000 in the country.

Earlier this year, IKEA opened a new store in Sydney, with plans to open two more stores in Canberra and Brisbane by the end of this year. This expansion will add close to 1000 jobs.

IKEA currently has more than 360 stores in 47 countries.

Source : Retail Business Review
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