IKEA department store in Zagreb is the fifth in the world by the number of kitchens sold.
On Tuesday, IKEA Croatia announced its business results for the successful second year of operations, during which it achieved turnover of 567.7 million kuna (72.4 million euros), representing an increase of 5.8 percent compared to the first year. Out of the total turnover during the second year of operations (September 2015 – August 2016), the department store had turnover of 535.7 million kuna (68.3 million euros), while IKEA FOOD (Restaurant and Bistro, Cafe and Swedish Food Shop) had 27.4 million kuna (3.5 million euros). IKEA Croatia sold 3,300 kitchens this year, which puts it in fifth place according to the number of kitchens sold among all 340 IKEA department stores in the world, reports Poslovni.hr on October 25, 2016.
“In the second year, we have achieved excellent sales results and opened online sales channel in order to be even more accessible to Croatian customers. We will continue to develop and adapt our offer and services to the satisfaction of our visitors. A new feature that will surely delight them is the opening of a pick-up point in Split, which we plan to launch over the next 12 months”, announced Stefan Vanoverbeke, the CEO of IKEA Croatia and regional director of IKEA South East Europe (SEE).
In the first five months, the newly-launched online shop received 3,000 orders, mostly from Split-Dalmatia County, the City of Zagreb, Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, Istria County and Zadar County. In 2017, IKEA will introduce the option of paying in cash on delivery, as well as an online kitchen planning application via Skype.
In the last 12 months, the IKEA department store in Zagreb was visited by more than 1.6 million visitors, while the website IKEA.hr had over 5 million visitors. The best-selling product from the furniture section were ALGOT storage solutions (124,849 items sold), while the best-selling supplement were OFTAST plates (819,000 items). The best selling meal were hot dogs (612,504), while the best-selling drink was flavoured water (278,177 glasses).
IKEA South East Europe has an ambitious expansion plans, which include opening of 13 IKEA department stores in the region (Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia and Romania) by 2025.
IKEA has also launched the Designer Outlet Croatia project. It is a fashion outlet next to the IKEA Zagreb department store whose construction will start during 2017, while the opening is expected in 2018. In the first phase of the project, Designer Outlet Croatia will cover 15,000 square metres, with 90 individual shops. Upon completion of the first phase, about 400 new jobs are expected to be created.
