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2019, the company has opened several distribution sites across both countries to cater to its growing emphasis on online sales.
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has catalysed the drive towards e-commerce. Despite the lockdown last year, sales at the Czech IKEA remain more or less the same year on year, according to its annual report: in the financial year starting in September 2019 to the end of August 2020, the company recorded sales of CZK10.3bn (€394mn), down by CZK209bn on
a year earlier. The company's profit amounted to CZK1.14bn.
"The result was significantly favourably affected by an increase in online sales of 97.5% compared to last year. The strong increase in online shopping was a significant growth factor, as the total number of visitors to our department stores fell by a tenth during the [coronavirus] quarantine in April and May,” the company said.
According to Finstat.sk data, Slovak IKEA posted a 2% y/y drop in sales to €115mn in 2020; its profit amounted to €10mn in 2020, down by 4% y/y.
And the company has been playing an active role in society. In 2020, IKEA Slovakia launched the sale of a limited edition STORSTOMMA rainbow bag which was able to “carry everything – plants, books, clothes, but not hatred. It's not just a bag, it has a message." The company sent the profits from
bag sales to organisations that provide support, services and advice to LGBT+ communities in crisis.
IKEA has also run a campaign against domestic violence in Czechia. At the end of 2020, both the Czech and Slovakia stores launched the new campaign “For safe home” with the tagline “domestic abuse is real, even if it’s not visible”. Domestic violence has increased during the COVID-19 epidemic. The statistics show that 47% of women have experi- enced some form of domestic violence and IKEA ran TV spots in both countries promoting the campaign in the run-up to Christmas.
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"We believe that the home should
be a safe place for everyone, which unfortunately does not always apply. That is why we decided to actively help the victims of domestic violence," commented Equality, Diversity and Inclusion manager, IKEA Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia Roman Bojko.
According to the latest survey carried out by IKEA in Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary Gender Equality Study, only 45% of Czechs believe that Czech society is built on gender equality, while in Slo- vakia it is 48%. However, the responses of men and women differ significantly. While more than 50% of Czech and Slovak men are convinced of gender equality in their households, it is less than 40% for Czech and Slovak women.
"If most of the responsibilities of caring for the household are taken over by only one of the partners, it represents an excessive burden, which sooner or later may grow into anxiety, long-term overload and other symptoms. Real equality starts at home,” said Bojko. The study was published on Women Day on March 8.
Opening up Southeast Europe
The countries of Southeast Europe are perhaps a decade behind their cousins to the north but IKEA has deemed an increasing number have made enough
tion in Southeast Europe. It opened a 26,000-square metre store at the sprawl- ing Baneasa retail park in the northern outskirts of Bucharest at the peak of the mid-2000s boom in 2007. Next to the huge Baneasa Shopping City and surrounded by affluent suburbs, the Bucharest IKEA was a popular destination for residents of Southeast Europe’s largest city.
In 2019, IKEA opened its second Bucharest store, having already outlined plans for four new stores in the country, in Timisoara, Brasov and Cluj as well as Bucharest. There has also been strong growth in online orders, mainly from customers in major cities, over the last few years.
IKEA’s real estate division Vastint is
also present in Romania, where it is responsible for the buildings with
the highest Leadership in Energy
and Environmental Design (LEED) certifications in the country with the Business Garden Bucharest and Timpuri Noi Square developments.
However, IKEA became embroiled in
a land dispute when it bought some forests from controlled by Harvard University’s investment fund; Harvard had been accused of buying some of
its land in transactions that were later challenged by the Romanian authorities, who said state-owned forests were
“The countries of Southeast Europe are perhaps a decade behind their cousins to the north but IKEA has deemed an increasing number have made enough progress to warrant a storex”
progress to warrant a store. IKEA has been open for years in the larger markets of Southeast Europe but has been slower to enter the smaller countries in the region such as Slovenia. The company said in 2016 that it aims to have 13 stores in Croatia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia by 2025.
Romania, the region’s largest consumer market by far, was IKEA’s first destina-
illegally reclassified as private property through a restitution programme intended to return land nationalised by the communists to the former owners. IKEA-owned Ingka Investments was later taken to court in Romania. According
to the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), IKEA has bought 50,000 hectares of forest in Romania, making it the country’s largest private landowner.