Ikea Bang Na enjoys good first year

The company remains on track with its plan to open second and third Ikea stores in the capital within the next five to 10 years.
Swedish giant Ikea opened its first home furnishing store in Thailand, located at the Mega Bangna shopping complex on Bang Na-Trat Road, on November 3 last year.
“About 40,000 visitors came to our Ikea store on the first day of opening. The number of visitors reached 100,000 over the first three days,” said Gannrapee Chatchaidamrong, marketing manager of Ikea Bang Na.
Between 5,000 and 10,000 visitors enter the store on weekdays, and between 15,000 and 20,000 per day on weekends.
“We’re quite happy with our first-year results. More than 20 per cent of visitors made purchases, with most spending between Bt2,000 and Bt5,000 per visit,” said Gannrapee.
The company earlier faced a stock problem for some furnishing goods due to huge domestic demand, but |this has now settled down to an acceptable level, she added. It has adopted the “Ikea Way” supply-chain-management initiative, which aims to offer all furnishing products under one roof and allow individual customers to fully participate in their shopping process so that they can select and purchase products without assistance.
“We participate with our suppliers over design work. The aim is to allow them to produce quality products with good inspirational and functional benefits and value for money,” she said.
Ikea offers some 7,500 home furnishing products at its store in Bang Na. About 95 per cent of them are sourced from suppliers in more than 30 countries around the world, and only 5 per cent are from local suppliers.
About 1,200 product items will be rotated at the Ikea store when it enters the second year of operation.
Gannrapee said Ikea’s successful Thai model was based on a project named “New Generation”, adopted initially in Thailand in cooperation with the Mae Fah Luang Foundation, by sending its Swedish designer Anna Efverlund to participate in the design process |for making ceramic ware and related products.
The products made under the initiative are now also sold through Ikea’s stores in Sweden, Switzerland and Austria.
The local initiative is also being applied in other countries, she added.
Ikea has 334 home furnishing stores in 40 countries. In Southeast Asia, the company has outlets in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
“We expect to see double-digit growth both in sales and the number of visitors to our store in our second year of operation.
“We want to be a top-of-the-mind furnishing retailer in our primary target area, which is a 20-kilometre radius from our store, or 40-45 minutes’ driving time. The area covers 2 million households,” Gannrapee said.