The wildly popular IKEA Croatia continues to operate well.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 11th of October, 2018, during its fourth year of doing business in the Republic of Croatia, IKEA Croatia has achieved record results with a sales growth rate of an impressive 14.9 percent, and growth in Internet sales of nearly 204 percent compared to the same period a year earlier.
The total turnover realised by IKEA Croatia for the previous business year amounts to more than 680 million kuna, or nearly 90 million euro.
"Compared to other countries in which we operate, Croatia is the third in Europe and the eighth in the world when it comes to sales growth, making us extremely optimistic. We're particularly pleased to have created nearly 500 new jobs in the past business year.
As a result of the investments of IKEA and the Swiss company Mutschler Outlet Holding AG, the Designer Outlet Croatia centre also employed about 400 people. It [the aforementioned investment] has also seen the employment of 98 new workers in the IKEA Zagreb warehouse, and the delivery centres in Rijeka, Split, and in Osijek, which raises the total number of employees within IKEA Croatia by almost 30 percent than when compared to last year. We want to further develop our business in Croatia and contribute to the sustainable economic development of the entire community,'' said Stefan Vanoverbeke, Director of IKEA Croatia and CEO of IKEA South East Europe.
Almost 13 million products were sold over the past year, of which 61.6 percent were furniture, and 38.4 were decorations and other types of home accessories. The MALM furniture collection and DVALA pillow cases, covers and bedding were the best-selling items, while white remained the most popular among the colours of furniture that customers chose in the IKEA Zagreb department store.
The IKEA store in Zagreb has been visited by a massive 1.8 million customers, while the IKEA website recorded 13.8 million visits during the same period. 43,397 orders were made through internet purchases, of which more than 40 percent were delivered via Croatian IKEA delivery centres located in Rijeka and Split, as well as from the one in Osijek, which was opened back in June this year.
By opening IKEA delivery centres, IKEA wants to make its products as accessible as possible to as many people possible throughout the Republic of Croatia. Since June this year, a temporary exhibition space called IKEA Malo misto was opened in Split in order for potential customers to gain inspiration. With the reduction in the delivery prices which are now unique to the entire country, IKEA will continue to invest in the availability of its range.
IKEA values its employees and continuously conducts internal surveys to try to tap into their level of employee satisfaction. Their high marks saw IKEA named the third best employer in Croatia among big companies for the second consecutive year.
