IKEA hails fifth consecutive year of UK sales growth
Home furnishing retailer IKEA increased its sales by 8.9% year-on-year to £1.72 billion in the UK in the year to 31 August 2016. This marks the fifth consecutive year of sales growth for the business.
The retailer said growth was driven by a focus on improving the multichannel shopping experience, enhancing its existing stores, a new store opening in Reading, and a pilot of four new ‘Order and Collection’ Point formats.
IKEA UK country retail manager Gillian Drakeford said: “Achieving our fifth consecutive year of growth is something we’re extremely proud of and demonstrates the success of our values-driven business, commitment to our people, the planet and our customers.”
IKEA saw strong growth in online sales with a 31% sales uplift in the period. The online business now accounts for 13.4% of total sales.
“As part of our ambition to become a truly multichannel retailer, we launched a new website to provide an improved online experience for our customers as well as further connecting the online and offline channels”, said Drakeford. “Our stores and website have a different, although integrated, role to play. Our customers are increasingly using both channels to complete their purchasing journey so we’ve focused on ensuring this experience is as seamless as possible.”
The retailer also saw a 3% increase in customers visiting its stores. It plans to open a new store in Sheffield in 2017.
IKEA has invested £4 million in rebuilding the cooking and eating departments in all UK stores. This contributed to strong growth in the cooking category of 17.9% in the year.
In addition, investment in bedrooms and the launch of UK standard bed, mattress and linen sizes in 2015 helped mattress sales increase by 18.8%.
During the year, IKEA created 1,700 jobs to take the total number of workers in the UK to 10,000.
In April, IKEA started to pay the real Living Wage to all workers and became an accredited Living Wage Foundation employer.
