After a silence of 15 years, Vassilis Fourlis is once more placing ahead the cash machine referred to as IKEA, investing within the growth of the family gear and furnishings chain within the Greek market with the opening of three new massive shops.

Primarily based on the planning, the three new IKEAs will function within the Commerce Estates retail parks underneath growth, the primary in Patraswhich shall be accomplished in November this yr and can in all probability host and the primary Kiabi retailer on Greek soil (s.s. that is the “heavy artillery” of low-cost French vogue), the second at Heraklion, Crete -will open in the summertime of 2025- and the third in Greek in 2027.

What’s altering in IKEA shops?

In fact, the “IKEA expertise” has already modified. It’s not the lonely blue “field” of 20,000-25,000 sq. meters with self-service warehouses, eating places, kids’s playground, Swedish meals grocery store, large parking heaps and hundreds of product codes instantly within the buying cart, however a medium-sized retailer 8,000-15,000 sq.m. which largely capabilities as a retail hub, “cohabiting” with different manufacturers.

A typical instance is Fourlis Retail Hub which is growing on the airport, in Spata.

Specifically, the transformation of the industrial park on the airport from an space that at the moment hosts IKEA right into a retail hub that may host, along with IKEA, different retail shops of the group, is beginning to take form. An Intersport retailer is already working, in addition to a Holland & Barrett retailer, whereas by September, within the “again to high school” logic, a retailer of a 3rd retail firm, probably the most well-known, will open. The knowledge signifies that subsequent to the IKEA retailer will function a retailer of the know-how chain Plaisio of the Gerardos household.

As well as, a brand new retail hub will quickly function in Larissa, the place the IKEA retailer has additionally shrunk, as occurred within the corresponding Commerce Estates retail park in Ioannina.

The little “brothers” of IKEA

Within the context of the final discount within the measurement of the IKEA retailer community, the town shops in city facilities can even play an vital position, “an axis that may acquire increasingly significance in our outcomes” as characteristically stated by Mr. Valachis.

So far as IKEA’s little “brothers” are involved, the start was made at The Mall Athens and Piraeus, whereas for the subsequent three years there’s a plan to develop 6 new shops (as much as 2,500 sq.m.) in all three international locations during which the mark (Greece, Cyprus and Bulgaria).

Nevertheless, the planning for the development of a metropolis retailer within the heart of Athens has been deserted with the primary cause being the disproportionately excessive rents, therefore the seek for appropriate areas within the regional markets of Attica, in addition to provincial cities.

The principle axes of strategic growth

As said by Mr. Dimitris Valachis, CEO of the Fourlis group, throughout yesterday’s common assembly of the listed firm, the primary axes within the growth technique of IKEA shops embody:

• Optimized retailer community
• Enlargement with new shops
• Enlargement with metropolis shops
• Emphasis on the omnichannel strategy and digitalization
• Strategic worth discount

It ought to be famous that the prevailing IKEA community within the Greek market (13 factors of sale) within the first quarter of the yr elevated gross sales by 4.6%, reaching 78.2 million euros from 74.7 million euros and improved the revenue margin, efficiency ensuing from elevated gross sales quantity and resulting from worth reductions.

Specifically, IKEA has lowered costs by 8%-10% for 20% of the merchandise obtainable in Greece, progressively “correcting” the burden from the price of disrupting manufacturing and the provision chain.

Supply: ot.gr