IKEA announces 14% sales growth in Ireland, as retailer commits to expansion plans in Ireland
With customer shopping habits continuing to change following the pandemic, IKEA Ireland’s total online sales have doubled compared to before the pandemic in financial year 2019. Consumers also started coming back to the IKEA store, with store visitation increasing by 70% compared to last year as 3 million people visited IKEA.
Throughout the financial year, IKEA continued to see strong appetite from customers investing in their homes, with growth seen across all areas, particularly within kitchen and dining equipment, textiles, and storage – both in-store and online.
Becoming more accessible
As part of IKEA Ireland’s long-term transformation to become more convenient and accessible, IKEA plans to invest in new and existing ways to shop and meet people including new Plan & Order Points, a new distribution centre, developing the existing store, and new delivery capabilities; making it easier and more sustainable to shop at IKEA than ever before.
Following the success of the two Plan and Order Points opened last year in Naas and St Stephen’s Green shopping centre, IKEA commits to open many more around the country within the next couple of years. Starting this Spring, IKEA will open a Plan & Order Point in Drogheda, which will be followed by one in Cork and another in Portlaoise. To complement the Ballymun IKEA store, the Plan & Order Points provide customers with free, bespoke design consultations with experienced IKEA kitchen and bedroom storage experts, enabling complex purchases with shorter travel time to IKEA.
IKEA will also open its first distribution centre in Ireland this year; a state-of-the art new build equipped with the latest in sustainable and energy-efficient technology. It will enable quicker fulfilment of IKEA products for customers in Ireland, with increased availability and delivery times reduced by more than half. With the distribution centre located in Ireland, it will also reduce CO2 emissions.
With the IKEA Store in Ballymun predicted to welcome its 40 millionth visitor this year, IKEA will continue to invest and improve the store. In the coming months IKEA will be significantly revamping the children and bedrooms departments; two of the most popular sections in IKEA, to deliver a fresh and new experience to its Irish customers. They will also be re-opening Småland this year, a free play area for the convenience of customers who come to IKEA with their children.
“Everything we do starts with our customers. Over the next years, we will continue to transform as we respond to their needs and dreams, today and tomorrow. We will step up our investments in Ireland with a simple goal: to become more customer centric, so that people can shop with us for a better, more sustainable life at home, whenever, wherever and however they choose. With new Plan and Order Points, the new distribution centre, service offers, and digital solutions that complement each other, our aim is to be there for our customers however they want to meet us.”
Other highlights from financial year 2022:
- IKEA continued to see Irish people enjoy cooking and entertaining, with IKEA Dublin being the number one store in the world when it came to cooking and eating accessories.
- IKEA Dublin was the store in which IKEA worldwide sold the most LODRÄT pint glasses, almost three times more than the number two store.
- To keep Irish kitchens organised and ready to store food, IKEA sold 414,000 ISTAD resealable bags.
- IKEA Dublin was also the number one store in Home Decoration sales, with no other store selling as many frames.
- IKEA Ireland continued its efforts to ensure co-workers were supported in these challenging times. Since January 2023, the pay for hourly paid co-workers increased to €13.85, with salaried co-workers receiving a pay rise of 6%, on average. In response to the cost-of-living crisis, the retailer also announced investments in financial, physical, and mental wellbeing measures, to provide further support to co-workers.
- A reduction food waste by 62% over the past five years. This figure equals about 3 million meals.
- 100% of electricity in IKEA Ballymun continued to be derived from renewable sources, continuing the company’s journey to becoming climate positive by 2030.
- 44,000 spare parts given away for free to enable repairs and avoid products being disposed of.
Marsha Smith ends:
“A post-pandemic backdrop of increased living costs, supply chain challenges and macro-economic instability inevitably shaped our business in 2022.
“In the face of these changes, our long-term vision to create a better everyday life for the many people was our guiding compass for short and long-term decision making, and our results reveal the positive impact of this approach with healthy financial results representing our financial stability and resilience amidst great change.
“In 2023, we will continue on our journey to create better homes for customers, better lives for co-workers and communities, a better company for now and generations to come, and a better planet for all.”