South Americans are getting closer to being able to walk through the many exhibition halls of Nordic-style furniture and decoration in Ikea and taste the Swedish dishes of its characteristic cafeteria. The Swedish retail giant will open close to new stores in this part of the world, including Peru.
And it is that the furniture company announced its definitive arrival in South America this 2022, at the hands of the Chilean conglomerate Falabella, after four years since the alliance between the two companies to develop and operate the first Swedish stores in Chile, Colombia and Peru.
The ambitious project will begin with the opening of two stores in Santiago de Chile, which will be located in the Open Kennedy shopping center in Las Condes and in Mall Plaza Oeste in Cerrillos. In addition, it will launch its online sales channel through which the company will reach the entire Chilean territory.
The brand has already announced that it is in full collaborator search process for teams responsible for processes linked to sales, logistics, customer experience and design, among others.
The first physical store Ikea on Chile will open at the end of June this year and will be located in the shopping center Open Kennedy. In addition, the company confirmed that during the second semester its second establishment will be inaugurated in the Mall Plaza Oeste de Cerrillos.
Ikea will implement a different model in Chile which it occupies at an international level, since it is recognized for having large rooms under the stand-alone model or direct to the street, very common in countries such as the US. This new model would also be replicated in its premises in Peru and Colombia.
Peru and Colombia await Ikea
Falabella announced that the agreement with Ikea contemplates the opening of at least nine stores in Chile, Colombia and Peru in the next 10 yearstogether with the development of the online channel for the three countries, which implies an estimated investment of US$600 million.
The idea of the company is to develop Ikea taking advantage of the know-how, or way of operating the business, of the team of its Sodimac chain. The arrival plan of the Swedish furniture brand in South America has been delayed mainly by the pandemic.
In January, Falabella announced that of the US$711 million it plans to invest, 40% will be used to expand the company’s store network, especially for the development of Ikea in Chile and Colombia.
The Swedish firm recently reported that in 2021 -together with its franchisees- it had a turnover of 41.9 billion euros (US$ 47.5 billion at current exchange rates), of which 26% came from e-commerce. While the company alone obtained revenues of 25,615 million euros (about US $ 29,000 million).
In the last three years, the company has focused on its expansion into new markets with the goal of reaching 17 new countries by 2023. Last year it opened its first stores in Mexico and Slovenia, while this 2022 it plans to also reach Puerto Rico, Philippines and Oman. Ikea currently has 400 stores in 50 markets around the world.