HOLLAND - Inter IKEA Systems, the owner of the IKEA Concept and worldwide IKEA franchisor reported figures for financial year 2018 (FY18) which runs from 1 September to 31 August.

Adjusted for currency impact, IKEA franchisees’ retail sales grew by 4.5% in FY18. Total retail sales, which includes sales of both products and services to IKEA customers, amounted to EUR 38.8 billion.

In FY18 India and Latvia became new IKEA markets, and 19 new stores opened around the world. Together 422 IKEA stores in more than 50 markets welcomed 957 million visitors.

Belgium, Romania and Malaysia introduced e-commerce, and customers in 35 markets can now shop for IKEA products online. There were 2.5 billion visits to the IKEA website, and IKEA Place was the world’s number two most downloaded augmented reality app. The app allows people to virtually place furniture in their home.

In summer 2018, IKEA announced new and bold commitments to inspire and enable people to live more sustainable lives within the limits of the planet. This includes reducing the total IKEA climate footprint by an average of 70% per product and removing all single-use plastic products from the IKEA range.

Now IKEA will bring that experience closer to even more people. “By 2025, we have the potential to reach and interact with 3 billion people. We will offer new and different ways to shop the IKEA product range – online, in remote locations and in city centres. We will introduce smaller store formats and offer a wide range of flexible and affordable services,” says Torbjörn Lööf, Inter IKEA Group CEO.

During the coming years, Falabella – a new IKEA franchisee – will bring IKEA products to South America for the first time. 9 stores are planned for this region within a 10-year period, begining with Chile, Colombia and Peru. IKEA will also come to Mexico, Estonia, Ukraine, Puerto Rico, Oman, Luxembourg, Macau and the Philippines. For FY19 IKEA plans 15 new retail locations, this includes IKEA Bahrain – a new market – which opened in September.