Page 41 - HW September 2019

global eyes
Is IKEA as “smart” as it thinks it is?
Wyevale sell-off
continues
Following the mid-year 2018 announcement that it was for sale as
a complete business or as individual garden centres, Wyevale Garden Centres has recently sold its fourth garden centre as a going concern to British Garden Centres, making it 20-odd Wyevale sites which have been sold to other parties in the last year.
Charles Stubbs, MD of British
Garden Centres, says of the deal: “We
are proud to announce the purchase
of Bournville Garden Centre into our rapidly expanding British Garden Centres family. Phillippa, Robert and I and all the British Garden Centres teams are looking forward to supporting Bournville in the set up for the autumn/winter trading period.”
Wyevale, formerly The Garden Centre Group, has been the UK’s largest garden centre group, but has now reduced its almost 150-store network down to 22 garden centres with six centres trading under license.
www.wyevalegardencentres.co.uk/ https://britishgardencentres.com/
IN MID-AUGUST IKEA announced that it was investing in a new standalone division to address its smart home aspirations.
As many retailers have found, the smart home thing just hasn’t blossomed as expected. And, with recently sub-par financials, the giant Swedish home retailer is clearly driven to try new categories.
In this respect, IKEA is now kicking things along a bit harder with the new division which is going to handle smart and connected home, end to end.
Called IKEA Home Smart, the initiative actually started life way back in 2012 with product development and the incorporation of digital elements and technologies into products like the phone charging tabletop, smart lighting and lately the smart speakers developed with Sonos (see photo).
Some time ago, IKEA also created its own ecosystem and app for smart lighting. Originally introduced as TRÅDFRI, this year its name has changed to the IKEA Home Smart App and will serve as the hub of IKEA’s smart home.
Not one to overstate anything,
the language being used in IKEA’s announcements is however indicative that the new Home Smart division really is a Big Deal and is hoped to be a game changer for the retailer.
For example: “We have decided to invest significantly in Home Smart across IKEA to fast-forward the development [of smart home]. This is the biggest new business we
are establishing since the introduction of Children’s IKEA,” says Peter van der Poel, Manager IKEA Range & Supply.
The new division has aspirations beyond just homewares, according to Björn
Block, Head of the new IKEA Home smart Business Unit at IKEA of Sweden, who says: “We want to continue to offer products for a better life at home for the many people going forward. In order to do so we need
to explore products and solutions beyond conventional home furnishing.”
This latest initiative will be inclusive of and logically leverage other IKEA interests: “By working together with all other departments within IKEA, the business unit of IKEA Home smart will drive the digital transformation of the IKEA range, improving and transforming existing businesses and developing new businesses to bring more diverse smart products to the many people. We are just getting started,” says Björn Block.
Note that IKEA isn’t alone in taking smart home more seriously than just flogging boxes which is the generalised approach taken by all but a very few specialist consumer electronics retailers (Best Buy excepted).
Interesting to note in the light of this news that Bunnings, at its last Investor Day, specifically mentions Connected Home as a category which it wants to make more of in the coming financial year.
www.inter.ikea.com
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SEPTEMBER 2019 | NZHJ 39