Ikea Qatar expects 1.6mn visitors in 1st year of operations

Ikea, the Swedish furniture retailer, which opens its Qatar store today at 11am at Doha Festival City, is expecting 1.6mn visitors in the first year of operations, a senior official said yesterday.“Almost 80% of Qatar’s residents have previously interacted with Ikea stores and products in other locations worldwide,” claimed John Kersten, managing director, Ikea – UAE, Qatar, Egypt and Oman.The trademark 33,000sq m ‘blue box’ store stocked with more than 7,500 home furnishing products and featuring 1,500 parking spaces and a 550-seat restaurant, is located beside Al Shamal Road in Al Daayen Municipality, around 17km from Doha.Ikea Qatar will be open from 10am to 10pm, Sunday to Wednesday, and 10am to midnight, Thursday to Saturday. The Ikea restaurant timings are 9am to 9.30pm (Sunday to Wednesday) and 9am to 11.30pm (Thursday to Saturday).“The Qatar store is the newest of Ikea’s 341 stores in 41 countries,” said Kersten, who was flanked by regional brand manager James McGowan and marketing manager Vanessa Kaye.This is the region’s third Ikea store managed by Al Futtaim group, which operates Ikea stores in the UAE at Dubai Festival City and Yas Island, Abu Dhabi.“We started working on the Qatar store several years ago and monitoring the market since three years,” Kersten recalled while observing that Omar al-Futtaim (vice chairman, Al-Futtaim group) was eager to launch the outlet.Ikea Qatar has around 300 employees, most of whom have been on the payroll for the past two years, in line with the behind-the-scenes preparations for the opening today.As many as 150,000 copies of the Ikea catalogue have already been distributed free to households across Qatar and another 45,000 are available at the store. The Ikea catalogue, published towards the end of August every year, reaches 211mn people in 41 countries.“Ikea offers well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that the majority of people are able to afford them,” Kersten said.Though most of Ikea’s products are designed and packaged so that customers can take them home directly for self-assembling, the store also offers delivery and assembly services free of charge for purchases exceeding QR2,500. Ikea Qatar website www.ikea.qa is live now. “The Ikea store is a day out for the entire family to visit. The display areas give families plenty to talk and think about and the restaurant and children’s play area can keep everyone content and entertained,” the official maintained.Ikea was founded in 1943 by 17-year-old Ingvar Kamprad with a monetary reward given by his father for succeeding in his studies. The name Ikea was formed from the founder’s initials (IK) plus the first letters of Elmtaryd (E) and Agunnaryd (A), the farm and village where he grew up. Ikea originally sold pens, wallets, picture frames, table runners, watches, jewellery and nylon stockings - meeting needs with products at reduced prices.