KUALA LUMPUR: Home furnishing retailer Ikea Malaysia expects a positive performance with a single-digit growth in the financial year 2023 (FY23) after extraordinary success in FY22, during which it achieved a 35% increase in revenue to RM1.54bil.
Country retail manager Malcolm Pruys said this year and next, the company wanted to focus on the station stores at Ikea Batu Kawan, Penang, and Tebrau, Johor.
“We believe this station store (in Batu Kawan) has great potential for growth because its location is under a huge development now, so we will make it the biggest focus for customers who live in the north of the peninsula,” he said at a briefing on the company’s 2023 growth plan.
Meanwhile, Pruys said in line with Ikea’s 20th anniversary this year, the company planned to make the brand more accessible by using digital tools such as modernising the Ikea website to enhance the payment options.
He said Ikea also planned to improve and innovate its hospitality industry towards a healthier diet with the launching of a plant-based menu this year.
In the long term, he said the company would open more stores if it found strategic locations.
“We plan to increase the Ikea collection point nationwide in the next few years and in March, we will open a collection point in Melaka,” Bernama reported.
Meanwhile, Retail Group Malaysia (RGM) in its latest Malaysia Retail Industry Report that was released in November, said it was revising its annual retail industry growth target for 2022 to 41.6% from 31.7% previously.
The retail group said the revision was due to the better-than-expected growth during the third quarter and growth revision estimates for the fourth quarter.
Going into 2023, RGM forecasts a 3.5% growth rate for the Malaysian retail industry.
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