subject: IKEA sales fall flat [print this page] IKEA sales fall flat IKEA sales fall flat
For most people, renting their first flat or owning their first home will result in a trip to Ikea. In reality even those who have owned or rented property for a long period of time will most likely go to Ikea at some stage.
For parents buying childrens bedroom furniture, Ikea has shown to be effective for them since they are competitively priced. There are nevertheless those who don't want to give up on the quality of nursery furniture or bunk beds or whatever it may be. If that's the case, maybe Ikea is not the ideal place to do your shopping.
There is no questioning the success of Ikea. The organization has been through incredible achievements all over Europe and they've got steadily been developing their market share in these countries. The United States is almost certainly the biggest marketplace for home furniture and if they do succeed in establishing themselves there they will undoubtedly see their total sales of 23.1 billion continue to steadily grow.
Ikea has become quite used to having persistently powerful growth figures but for the year to August thus far they've managed to increase sales by 1% in the UK and Ireland while total sales internationally in the same time frame increased by 7.7%.
What this figure illustrates is the sensitive state of the economic climate and consumer confidence in the UK. The lack of first time buyers on the market as well as the lack of reasonably priced property and reduced credit by the banks and mortgage brokers has all but grounded the market to a stop.
Martin Hansson, IKEA UK and Ireland country manager, said: "It has been another challenging year for us but despite the overall home furnishings market being in decline, we have delivered a small growth. By staying close to our customers we have understood they are more conscious of price but do not want to compromise on quality, design or good service. Therefore, we have focused on always offering the lowest-priced products across each area of the home."
Founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad who is now one of the world's wealthiest men, operates in 26 countries with 280 stores. Although with 80% of their sales in 2009 originating from Europe, it is apparent that the region is key to their 2.17 billion profit. Nonetheless as the company has been expanding over recent years its profit has decreased to 17 million in the UK last year.
In spite of this, Hanssonn also went on to say that "It might be that people will want to move house less, but I believe they will want to create a haven."
