IKEA had 1.7 million customers in the third year of operations in Croatia.
IKEA Croatia had a turnover of as much as 622.4 million kuna, which is a 9.6 percent jump compared to the 2016 business year, the company announced on Monday, reports Jutarnji List on October 31, 2017.
“During the third year of business operations in Croatia, we have achieved excellent sales results, based on our principles of sustainability and a unique democratic design,” said Stefan Vanoverbeke, the CEO of IKEA Croatia and the regional director of IKEA for Southeast Europe.
According to the report, during the last business year, the IKEA Zagreb department store welcomed more than 1.7 million visitors, and more than five million people visited the IKEA website.
Their online store received more than 16,000 orders, most of which came from Split-Dalmatia County, Zagreb County, Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, Dubrovnik-Neretva County and Istria County. The newly-opened delivery centre in Rijeka has also achieved excellent results, as demonstrated by 670 orders with more than 11,800 products distributed to the delivery centre in less than two months of operations.
“In the future, the focus will be on more sales channels to make IKEA products even more accessible to as many customers in Croatia as possible. At the same time, we remain committed to creating a positive impact on the community in which we are doing business,” Vanoverbeke said.
Of the total of 12.2 million products sold, 23 percent were furniture and 77 percent accessories. Over the past year, IKEA sold a total of 5,500 kitchens. On the other hand, IKEA FOOD makes 4.8 percent of total sales and among the best-selling products are Swedish meat rounds, of which almost 1.8 million were sold. The company also sold 674,000 hot dogs, which would make a line 81 kilometres long if they were to be lined up one after another.
The growth will enable the company to invest more in employees. During the 2018 business year, all of the company's employees in the region will receive smartphones as an additional tool to better serve customers and exchange information and ideas faster.
At the end of May, the construction of the most extensive outlet centre in Croatia started. It is located next to the IKEA Zagreb department store and named “Designer Outlet Croatia”. This is a project worth 60 million euros in the first phase and was launched by IKEA Centres with partners. It is expected that the first customers will be welcomed in the spring of 2018, enabling them to have a unique shopping experience in as many as 90 stores. In the first phase, more than 400 new jobs will be created.
IKEA Southeast Europe remains committed to opening 13 IKEA department stores in the countries of the region – Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia and Romania – by 2025.
Translated from Jutarnji List.
