Furniture
Ikea has said it wants to reimburse the state aid the company received in nine countries, including Belgium, during the coronavirus crisis.
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Property
Ingka Centres, owner of shopping centres and part of the Ikea Group, wants to enter the American market. The real estate company is in talks to refurbish properties on central locations in major American cities.
General
As Belgian stores were allowed to reopen today, the image is rather mixed: some chains (like Ikea) saw hours-long queues, others remained almost completely empty.
Ikea has stated it hopes to reopen its European stores from the end of April. In the meantime, the chain is offering advice by video conference in Belgium. The coronavirus crisis has already cost the Swedish company 60 % of its turnover.
Swedish furniture giant Ikea has started selling its articles via Alibaba's Chinese e-commerce platform Tmall. It is the first time in its 77-year history that the furniture giant sells through a third party.
As of September, Jon Abrahamsson Ring will be the CEO of Inter Ikea, the company that manages the intellectual property of the Swedish furniture chain. He has been a close associate of founder Ingvar Kamprad for four years.
The great uniformity of apartment buildings from the Soviet era has proved to be a welcome inspiration for Ikea: in five stores, customers can use VR to give their apartment a virtual update. The tool may later be used in a number of other countries as well.
Even Ikea is having a hard time in the declining British market: in Coventry, in the centre of England, Ikea is forced to permanently close its store. 352 employees lose their jobs.
Ikea is building a new, green city store in Vienna: there will be no parking, but the seven-storey building will have green balustrades and roofs with no less than 160 trees.
Swedish furniture chain Ikea has opened a pop-up store in Eindhoven (the Netherlands), that wants to attract attention to its smart products. However, the store is more like a showroom, with customers unable to physically purchase and take home the smart products.
Ikea has taken a minority stake in Optoro, an American start-up that develops software aimed at making returns more efficient. The investment fits in with the objective of the Swedish retailer to be a circular company by 2030.
Australians are buying fewer Christmas gifts this year, and opting for more useful and inclusive gifts. Here, too, 'more sustainable' gifts for the end of the year period are a growing trend, because things have reached their peak.
Ikea has had to admit a 10 % profit drop this year, due to higher prices of raw materials and investments in new concepts. Nevertheless, the Swedish retail chain wants to continue to maintain a high level of innovation in the future.
Following Nike's most recent example, Ikea too has withdrawn from Amazon's marketplace. Some analysts see this as a very smart decision, others point to its dangers...
Chaotic scenes took place in all of Ikea's Belgian stores this morning. This was prompted by the launch of the new Markerad collection, designed by Virgil Abloh, the artistic director for Louis Vuitton.
Swedish furniture giant Ikea is looking to acquire shopping centres in the United Kingdom as part of an expansion plan. This way, the retail chain wants to benefit from lower retail property prices.
