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IKEA Philippines to open in ‘less than 3 yrs’
Filipinos looking for the IKEA experience will have to continue waiting before the Swedish furniture and home accessories retailer opens its first store in the Philippines.
“We are [still]looking for sites and partners,” IKEA Southeast Asia Market Development Manager Georg Platzer told reporters at the sidelines of Monday’s launch of the Philippines-Sweden Business Council.
“We have gotten from Inter IKEA Systems B.V. the franchise rights to open a store here in the Philippines,” he noted, with the first store — to be located in Metro Manila — expected to open in “less than 3 years”.
“The Philippines is a big country and has many people, and we are expecting a lot of visitations so the store would [have to]be big,” Platzer said.
“First of all, we’d like to be 100 percent sure that we find the right locations because we need things like a well-developed infrastructure, roads, public transport, electricity supply and everything you need to operate such a big retail store,” he added.
Logistics will be crucial since products will have to be imported and stored in warehouses before being sold and shipped to customers.
“Good logistics planning is needed and that also takes time,” Platzer said.
“We’re barely constructing here in the Philippines so we need to find the right partners who are able to build such a building according to our standards and our books — basically following all European standards,” he added.
Platzer said IKEA’s first store in the Philippines could be bigger than one established in South Korea.
“The store’s size [in Seoul]is 60,000 square meters including the warehouse. We plan for a very big store [in the Philippines],” he said.
“The thing is the plan’s architecture drawings are not yet ready so it would be speculation to talk about the size. The biggest so far is in Seoul and we want it (the Philippine store) to be bigger,” he added.
“It’s a big project so the whole supply chian of IKEA has to be prepared for this opening as well, so it’s not like it will just open. It usually takes two to three years from the moment of final decision to the opening so the rest of the supply chain also gets prepared.”
Asked to comment on reports that IKEA would be locating at the SM Mall of Asia, Platzer replied that “nothing is signed yet”.
“We are negotiating with all major players in the Philippines. We are talking it out but it’s not yet signed and not yet finally decided. I wouldn’t say that [the talks with SM]is most advanced,” he said.
Platzer noted that “SM is holding probably the biggest, best commercial areas in the Philippines and Southeast Asia … SM has the ability to bring a lot of people to certain spots but that’s also valid for Ayala Malls and that’s also valid for Robinsons.”
Aside from Metro Manila, IKEA could also put up stores in key cities like Cebu, Davao, Cagayan de Oro and Baguio.
“In the next five to 10 years, maybe four to six locations but in different formats. We’re also looking into smaller store formats. We’d like to be as close as possible to places where the people are,” Platzer said,
“The bigger-growing provincial capitals … like Cebu, I would say, is definitely in our map on the long run. In Mindanao, Davao maybe and Cagayan de Oro in the long run … we see cities like Baguio, San Fernando, there are provincial cities that have already good potential for some smaller store format,” he said
“We have actually established a legal entity in the Philippines which is called Ikano Philippines … We just need a local partner in the Philippines for land acquisition but not for retailing, not for the retail operations because that is 100 percent owned by Ikano.”
Source: http://www.manilatimes.net/ikea-ph-to-open-in-less-than-3-yrs/394754/