July 2020: Ingka Group news
- IKEA introduces plant ball
- IKEA Pulse Report #2: Redefining a better Life at Home
- IKEA Australia creates flatpack ‘Mindsets’
- New IKEA format stores launched in Germany, Russia, China
- IKEA Tmall Flagship Store pilot period extended
- IKEA Catalogue 2021 is here
- COVID-19: Ingka Group supports 600,000 people
IKEA has taken the sustainability journey to the next level by challenging an icon – the meatball - and has created a more sustainable option for the many meatball lovers. IKEA has worked hard to recreate this well known classic product to be a more sustainable option for the many meatball lovers without compromising on the taste and texture. The new plant ball, a plant-based meat substitute, is made with yellow pea protein, oats, potatoes, onion and apple, but looks and tastes like meat. With a climate footprint of only 4% of the classic IKEA meatball, the plant ball contributes to the IKEA ambition to become climate positive by 2030.
The plant ball launches in the EU in August 2020; IKEA stores in North America, Middle East and the Asia Pacific region will follow a couple of months later.
Hope and optimism remain even in difficult moments
The second IKEA Pulse Report on current life at home highlights that uncertainty remains for many but the time to reflect, reimagine and redefine what’s important offers a chance to rebuild a better life at home. In a short period, homes, values and priorities have all been challenged.
The second Pulse Report, ‘Redefining a better Life at Home’, sees 12 weeks of insight and real stories rounded-up from 20 households in Australia, China, Italy, Sweden and the US. Each household faced their own struggle to adapt and personal stories are highlighted, such as a desire to be close to nature alongside wanting more alone time.
Pulse Report #2 found that time for reflecting and reimagining has allowed people to question what’s important, and what might shape their future life. It is a unique chance to turn a strange and difficult time into fuel for the future.
New miniature flatpacks to help Australians be more mindful, find privacy
For the first time ever, IKEA Australia has partnered with five co-collaborators from a range of industries to create flatpack ‘Mindsets’ that allow users to engage in 15 minutes of mindful activity in a bid to secure more privacy in the home.
The limited-edition creations that are unique to the Australian market, include a DIY Xylophone from Yellow Wiggle, Emma Watkins, a bird box from one of Australia’s favourite gardeners, Jason Hodges, and a pet treat puzzle for our furry friends, courtesy of Instagram sensation, Mr Chuck.
High demand saw the limited-edition first-come first-served IKEA Mindsets prove popular with Australian customers.
IKEA continues to come closer to the many people through different store formats
The first two IKEA planning studios in Germany are set to shortly open their doors for customers. IKEA will be opening a planning studio in Pankow on 1 September 2020 and another in Potsdam on 27 October 2020.
“We very much look forward to serving our Berlin area customers exactly where they go about their lives. This is part of our new expansion strategy as it applies to Germany, which involves focusing on metropolitan regions and downtown areas in the future,” says IKEA Germany CEO Dennis Balslev.
In Pankow and Potsdam, formats are being developed in a central city location - accessible on foot or by public transport. Berlin is one of the world’s 40 metropolitan regions with new IKEA concepts emerging.
IKEA Russia opened a city store in Moscow in the Mozaika shopping centre, earlier this month. With 20 million people, Moscow is the most populated city in Europe, and the economic centre of Russia. As a result, the demands of Muscovites are growing each day, so service has to be quick and on their door-steps.
“People are not willing to travel more than 30 minutes to a physical store,” says Alla Cherkavskaya, Area Manager of Moscow. “Accessibility is a key issue and to catch the outstanding Moscow potential, we need to become much closer to people in inner-city locations.”
IKEA China welcomed visitors to the first IKEA Shop in the mainland of China, IKEA City Shanghai Jing'an, on 23 July. Located at 1728 West Nanjing Road, IKEA City Shanghai Jing'an is at the heart of the Jing'an Temple, one of the most popular business districts in Shanghai China.
"IKEA always wants to get closer to Chinese consumers and to provide a more convenient, more flexible and more diverse shopping experience to meet everyone's expectations. Continuous development, the integration of new online and offline channels and business model expansions are critically important to optimising that experience. That's why IKEA China is introducing this new format,” says Francois Brenti, Expansion Vice President of IKEA China.
Being there for the customers is extremely important for IKEA. On March 10, IKEA China opened the first IKEA Tmall flagship virtual store to serve customers in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui in a pilot period. The pilot period has hence been extended after IKEA observed promising results.
IKEA Catalogue 2021 – The handbook for a better everyday life at home
This year’s edition of the IKEA catalogue marks its 70th birthday and to help celebrate, it is turned into something that everyone can enjoy and find useful: a handbook for a better everyday life at home!
Life is a series of new starts, sometimes they come when you expect them and just as often, when you don’t. Transitions to what’s next in our everchanging lives require new ways of thinking, new perspectives, new habits, new ideas and new solutions.
That is why this year’s IKEA catalogue is created as a handbook, that feels like a friendly and optimistic problem solver full of smart tips, hands-on ideas and small affordable shifts, rooted in real life at home. It is a way of sharing knowledge, a point of view that a better home creates a better everyday life at home. The handbook is filled with “how to’s” – how creating a better home don’t have to be complicated, expensive or time consuming.
Ingka Group support during Coronavirus pandemic
Since March, IKEA Retail (Ingka Group) has supported over 600,000 people in 30 countries, whose lives have been impacted by the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic.
The help and support to the vulnerable groups includes product donations such as complete bedroom and living rooms solutions and other essentials like food, plastic bags, bins and spray bottles and creation of temporary homes and quarantine centers for more than 50,000 homeless people, among others.
In March, Ingka Group launched the COVID-19 Emergency Community Support to activate emergency actions in response to the fast spreading coronavirus in the 30 countries it operates in. On 27 March, Ingka Group granted €26 million to protect the health and livelihoods of communities, co-workers, suppliers and consumers impacted by coronavirus.
Our round-up for June is available here.
For further information, journalists and media professionals can contact us at press.office@ingka.com or by calling +46 70 993 6376
Ingka Group (Ingka Holding B.V. and its controlled entities) is one of 12 different groups of companies that own and operate IKEA retail under franchise agreements with Inter IKEA Systems B.V. Ingka Group has three business areas: IKEA Retail, Ingka Investments and Ingka Centres. Ingka Group is a strategic partner in the IKEA franchise system, operating 380 IKEA stores in 30 countries. These IKEA stores had 839 million visits during FY19 and 2.6 billion visits to IKEA.com. Ingka Group operates business under the IKEA vision - to create a better everyday life for the many people by offering a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible can afford it.
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