IKEA in all sizes – V. Fourlis’ investment plan

If you think that visiting an IKEA store means that you have seen it all, you are making a big mistake.

The money machine of the chain of home equipment and furniture, namely the classic blue “box” of 20,000-25,000 square meters with self service warehouses, restaurants, playground, Swedish food supermarket, huge parking and thousands of product codes directly in the shopper’s basket, it will no longer be the only store that will offer the IKEA experience, as the range of sales spaces is enriched with two other “sizes”.

Within the next 4 years, apart from the big IKEA, there will be 4 new medium-sized stores in cities in Greece, as well as 5 mini ones within the urban fabric, as the president of the group, Mr. Vassilis Fourlis, announced yesterday speaking at the Fourlis teleconference.

What will the medium IKEA be like

The area of ​​the medium IKEA, as Mr. Fourlis explained, is 8,000-15,000 sq.m., while the large ones have an area of ​​20,000-25,000 sq.m. They will not have the huge self service product warehouses but will have a restaurant and a full product exhibition.

One of the 4 new medium-sized IKEAs will be located in the retail park that the Fourlis group is going to develop within Elliniko and is planned to open in 2025.

The shopping park will consist of large stores (Big Boxes) and the total investment is estimated at 55 million euros.

The memorandum of cooperation of the Fourlis group with Lamda Development was signed at the end of last June and the commercial park will be erected on Vouliagmeni Avenue, next to the Lamda shopping center.

The large IKEA of Larissa and Ioannina will also become medium IKEA with the works starting in the coming months. Lesees are being sought for the spaces that will be vacated.

It should be noted that the debut of the medium IKEA took place a year ago (September 2020) in Bulgaria and specifically in Varna, where it opened the first IKEA with an area of ​​8,000 sq.m., inside the Delta Planet Mall.

And neighborhood IKEA

In the coming days (September 8) a “small” IKEA will open in Sofia at the Mall of Sofia , while in November will open the new mini IKEA on the 4th floor of The Mall Athens in Maroussi, which will be 2,000 sq.m. .

These are the “new generation” IKEA stores developed by the Foulis group and located within the urban fabric. It is recalled that the first IKEA Small Store had opened its doors at the beginning of the year in Piraeus.

Five different IKEA

If we take into account the order and receipt centers (Pick-Up Points) and the online store, IKEA stores will operate in 5 different forms, while it is possible that IKEA pop ups will be launched in our country, as happened in other European markets, which operate for a limited time.

The ultimate goal of the new form of development is the consolidation of the omnichannel strategy (presence with physical stores and online), which is a strategy of the Swedish parent company since the end of 2018, when it announced the change of its expansion model, in order to respond more effectively to changing needs of new consumers.

Besides, as Mr. Fourlis mentioned, “we predict that in 5 years we will have a combination of physical and digital stores. It takes a lot of work to be able to offer this dual experience to the consumer, but we believe that we will be on the side of the market winners “.

Today, there are a total of 9 IKEA stores, six of them in Greece, one in Cyprus, and two in Bulgaria. There are also 9 Pick-up-Point points for IKEA products. Six of them in Greece, two in Bulgaria and one in Cyprus.

Sales are recovering

In July and August, the sales of the stores were close to the levels of 2019 and now it is important how the months of September and October will go, noted the CEO of the group, Mr. Apostolos Petalas, expressing his optimism for the sizes of the second half, while noted that the group is preparing for a very strong 2022.

In the first half of this year, the Fourlis group presented total sales (retail of household equipment and furniture, as well as retail of sports goods) at 185.7 million euros compared to 159.5 million in the first half of 2020, increased by 16.5%. Electronic sales in the first half of 2021 reached 43.5 million euros compared to 27.8 million in the first half of 2020, increased by 57%.

Consolidated operating profit before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EPR) amounted to 13.3 million euros compared to 5.3 million in the first half of 2020, increased by 155%.

Profits before taxes amounted to 0,9 million against losses before taxes 8.3 million in the first half of 2020. Profit after taxes for the first half of 2021 was 0.6 million euros.