As part of its expansion plans for Latin America, the Swedish furniture company IKEA continues its growth in Mexico and seeks to open new physical establishments in the cities of Puebla, Guadalajara and Monterrey and expand its digital stores, the director said in an interview with EFE. of Sales of IKEA Mexico, Ricardo Pinheiro.
After opening in Mexico City, the country’s capital, in April 2021, the company is now preparing to land in Puebla.
“If all goes well (it will be) during the summer, no later than that, and from then on we will continue with our plans to open a physical store also in (the cities of) Guadalajara and Monterrey,” said the manager.
The Swedish company notified its arrival in Mexico since May 2019 and landed in 2021 with an investment of around 1,500 million pesos (about 74 million dollars) in the Mexican capital in the Oceania area, east of the capital.
IKEA has a positive balance in Mexico
For Pinheiro, the arrival of IKEA in Mexico reports a “very positive balance” in its first year of operations, which was completed on April 8.
“We have had more than two million visitors in the store the first year and it is even more positive if we take into consideration that we have opened the first store in Mexico in the midst of a pandemic,” he said.
These good figures, he continued, come with the added challenge of building the store in that period, setting it up, bringing the products to Mexico and forming the teams.
“That is why I always say that it has been a miracle to open this store in these circumstances. In a year of closure due to confinement, that gives us the clear idea that Mexicans were waiting for the brand and are happy with our arrival,” said the director of this store. company founded in 1943 and with more than 420 stores in more than 50 markets around the world.
IKEA wants to increase market share
Pinheiro believes that despite the fact that more and more Mexicans are getting to know IKEA, “we must also think that two million visitors in a city (and metropolitan area) that has 24 million makes us see that our market share is still quite low.” .
He said that one of the factors is that in Mexico “there are competitors in the internal market” that have been “for many years.”
“But despite this, IKEA has made a big difference in this market for quality, design, functionality” and even prices, he remarked.
Precisely, he said that the opening of the second physical store shows that the brand “is very solid” in the Mexican market and that it comes with a long-term plan.
