For the first time since it arrived in Italy in 1989, IKEA slows down. The Swedish low-cost furniture giant closed the 2011-2012 business year (financial year closed on August 31st) with a turnover of 1.598 million euros in our country, down by 2,6% compared to 2010-2011. The only sales sectors still growing are kitchens (+1%), bathroom furnishings (+8%) and outdoor furniture.
Lars Petersson, CEO of Ikea Italia, today illustrated the results, also announcing further investments for 400 million euros over the next three years, with new openings (the first a Pisa at the end of 2013) and the development of online sales.
In particular, the manager referred to the troubled 115 million project for the opening of a third store in Rome. The new store should be built in the Pescaccio area, on the Aurelia, but the plan has been on hold for some time now due to the red tape between the Municipality and the Region, who have already accepted all the company's proposals.
“We have had a beautiful project for seven years, but we don't know when we will be able to open the third store in Rome – said Petersson -. For us, this situation is unacceptable. Long times are a problem, but the worst thing is uncertainty. We don't know when we will be able to open, if in three years, in five or never ".
The manager, who comes from a long experience in Japan, added that even in the rest of the world it takes a long time to obtain all the authorizations, but they are on average half as long as in Italy: "In this situation we all lose - he concluded - . Our Roman customers who complain of excessive crowding in the other two stores, especially at the weekend, and we who would like to expand".
Ikea is currently present in Italy with 20 stores that attract 46 million visitors a year. Our country is in fourth place in sales and in third place among the supplier markets of the Swedish group with 8,24% of supplies.
