IKEA sold furniture worth €70 mln

The IKEA store in Bucharest sold €70 million worth of furniture in the first nine months of 2007, 16 percent more than initial estimates.

“Sales in this period indicate that we exceed the €80 million estimate we set for the first year of activity in our country," said Cornel Oprisan, Retail Manager of IKEA Romania.

Although IKEA had stock-related problems immediately following the store’s opening last spring, these were overcome throughout the year. Last fall, following the launch of the 2008 catalog, IKEA announced a price cut by an average 12 percent. Company officials said that price cuts are due to lower logistics costs and higher volume.

In 2007 the store in Baneasa sold over 8.2 million furniture products, decorations and accessories. PAX wardrobe combinations were the best sold furniture product, with sales of 15,730 units, followed by the BILLY bookcase, with 12,320 units sold, and EKTORP products (couches, armchairs, lounge chairs, stools), with over 1,600 units sold.

IKEA is a Swedish trademark established in 1943. The Romanian store was the 253rd opened in the 35th country. In 2007, there were 583 million visitors to IKEA stores in Asia, North America, Europe and Asia. The total number of distributed catalogs was 191 million. The store in Romania is a franchise through Moaro Trading, based on an agreement with IKEA Systems B.V.