Ikea has another strong year in UK

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Nov 14, 2017

Ikea saw a sixth consecutive year of UK growth in the 12 months to August 31 with the Swedish retail giant’s sales up a strong 5.8% to £1.814 billion. It also increased its market share by 0.5% and is targeting a share of 15% of the overall market within a decade.

The company, which launched in Britain 30 years ago, saw sales rising as it opened new stores with two (in Reading and Sheffield) debuting during the year. It will open two more in the year ahead with one in Exeter and a South East London location, in Greenwich, next on the list.

Its sales effort last year was also helped by the launch of a new website, which helped push online sales up 10% to reach 15% of its total UK turnover. It saw 175.8 million visits to its website while there were 57.2 million visits to its stores.

Bestselling products in-store and online included comfy chairs and sofas (up 11%), and kitchen utensils (up 10%).

But despite the overall progression, the company’s costs rose by over 13% as the weaker pound after the Brexit vote proved to be a challenged and the firm was forced to absorb most of the cost increase. It raised prices by only 3.6%.

UK retail manager Gillian Drakeford said: "The Brexit vote has been on everyone’s lips and the devaluation of the Pound has been a challenge for many businesses. As we import a lot of our products from overseas, this increased our costs by 13.7%. To keep our range accessible and affordable for the many, we absorbed most of these costs, increasing prices by just 3.6%.”