Ikea has announced that it will invest an additional 906 million euros in France, from 2023 to 2026. The Swedish furniture giant will also open a new logistics center in Toulouse.
The Swedish furniture giant Ikea will invest an additional 906 million euros in France, from 2023 to 2026, to win more customers and open a new logistics center near Toulouse, with “very likely” new jobs. , announced the management.
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In total, and to also invest in its current stores and new sites such as the Parisian Italie Deux shopping center, the group will deploy 1.2 billion euros over four years, according to a press release published on Sunday, on the eve of “Choose France”, a summit of international investors convened Monday in Versailles by Emmanuel Macron.
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“Make our offer even more accessible”
Of this sum, 377 million will come from a previous investment envelope which had not been entirely consumed. “We are investing in existing sites and also new locations” to “make our offer even more accessible to as many people as possible” while “accelerating” sustainable development efforts, detailed in an interview with AFP the CEO of Ikea France, Johan Laurell.
France is “our third market” in the world and “we think we can grow more there”, added Jesper Brodin, boss of the Ingka holding company, which includes most of the Ikea stores and represents more than 90% of turnover. total of the group.
The envelope covers in particular the purchase of the Italie Deux shopping center, announced at the beginning of April, to relocate the store in the La Madeleine district there. All jobs will be maintained, confirmed Johan Laurell again.
New center in Toulouse
The kit furniture manufacturer with 12,000 employees in France also plans to open a new logistics center in Toulouse in 2024. He also confirmed the installation of a similar platform in Limay (Yveline) from 2026.
“We don’t have any figures today but we will be opening new logistics sites and this will most likely lead to the arrival of new colleagues,” said JohanLaurell.
Ikea will also invest in a solar park project in Langeron (Nièvre), which should be operational from 2024, and “support” the Dutch start-up RetourMatras in its project “to increase mattress recycling capacity in France by 500 000 units,” the group said in its statement.
The investment in France comes after a similar announcement, at the end of April, of an envelope of more than 2 billion euros over three years to develop the presence of Ikea in the United States, and a difficult year 2023 between inflation and withdrawal rushed from Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. Now, however, “supply chains are normalizing” and “some of our costs are falling”, according to Jesper Brodin. “Prices will go down, it’s not only our prediction, but also our mission,” he insisted.