By Hamed Mahmoud
IKEA, the region’s leading Swedish home furnishing retailer, and a member of Al-Futtaim Group, has successfully opened doors to its second large format store in Egypt at Mall of Arabia expecting to receive up to three million visitors in the first year.
Spread across 19,500 square metres and located in 6th of October city, the store targets the communities of West Cairo and its nearby neighbourhood such as Sheikh Zayed, Dokki, Mohandesin, Zamalek, Haram, Giza, and more. With the aim of creating a better everyday life for many people, the store captures a new growth corridor and aims to have a positive impact on the lives of almost five million residents.
The inauguration of the Mall of Arabia store witnessed the presence of Omar Al Futtaim, Vice Chairman and CEO of Al-Futtaim Group, Dr. Per-Axel Frielingsdorf, Chargé d’affaires at the Swedish Embassy, Basil Ramzy, CEO of Marakez, Vinod Jayan, Managing Director of IKEA – Al-Futtaim in UAE, Egypt and Oman and virtual attendance by Jon Abrahamsson, CEO of Inter IKEA, and Konrad Grüss, Managing Director of Inter IKEA systems. The opening also saw attendance by high profile guests and customers who queued up to experience the opening and be amongst the first to enter the new store.
Vinod Jayan, Managing Director of IKEA – Al-Futtaim in UAE, Egypt and Oman stated: “Today marks an important day for IKEA Al-Futtaim, bringing us closer to our vision of creating a better everyday life for the many people here in Egypt. We are extremely excited to open our second store in Mall of Arabia, 6th of October City. The store location will enable us to close the gap between West Cairo residents and deliver a fulfilling IKEA shopping experience.’’
He also added: “At IKEA we are committed to creating a positive impact on people, society and the planet by making sustainable living affordable, attractive and accessible. We have introduced new features such as digital signages, planning tools and the first ever small sized IKEA Bakery that aims at improving the overall experience of the customers in the store. ’’
The store caters to the diversified needs of customers, through great home furnishing inspirations, ideas, and products for every corner of their home. The store is fully integrated with the mall with four direct entrances across two floors. The new store provides in-store digital planning solutions for its storage systems that guides customers with information about the range of products available and desired designs:
The new store is built with sustainability at its core and contributes to the brand’s global efforts in this direction. IKEA has invested in new age technology for AC equipment’s which saves 30 per cent of the energy consumption as well as all lights in the store are LED. These save 80 per cent of energy consumption compared to conventional lights. Finally, the roof has been planned to be ready to receive the solar panels system.
Following a more integrated layout, home furnishing accessories is displayed with furniture products making customer shopping experience smooth and convenient. The store offers more than 7,500 products that are ready to be purchased immediately, featuring more than 1,600 products with new lower prices, along with 1,400 new products that suit all tastes.
