Ikea Indonesia opens doors

Sweden’s famous homewares giant Ikea has opened its first store in Indonesia.

Located about 25km from the heart of the capital city Jakarta, the 35,000 sqm store in Alam Sutera, Tangerang, opened on Wednesday.

“Indonesia has been a booming economy for the last 10 years. We judge now is the time when there are enough customers coming into the middle-class bracket who can afford to shop at Ikea,” its Indonesia GM Mark Magee told a media preview this week.

Ikea is unashamedly targeting the 74 million or so ‘middle class’ amongst the nation’s 250 million people. Its first store will have a catchment of about 9 million consumers with disposable income  in the greater Jakarta area.

Ikea Alam Sutera will carry about 7000 home furnishing lines, about 550 of them manufactured locally.

Ikea Indonesia marketing chief Benedicte Hansen said Ikea is able to sell its products at affordable prices because it merges high-volume sales with low-level distribution costs due to “flat-pack packaging” that takes up less shipping space.

The company says it will test the market with the first store before deciding on the location and number of additional outlets in Indonesia.

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