IKEA, the Swedish-based furniture and home decor retailer, which opened its first unit in Romania last year, could bring its mobile telephony service to Romania. The service was recently launched in Great Britain, in partnership with German operator T-Mobile.

"There?s a partnership between IKEA and T-Mobile, through which IKEA has a certain number of minutes on offer to customers", Cornel Oprisan, IKEA retail manager, told ZF. He added that it was too early to provide any specific information and that no research had been conducted to see whether such products were in demand from IKEA customers. With just one unit in Baneasa, IKEA expects to hit its sales estimate of 80m euros (VAT not included) for the interval September 2007-August 2008, the company?s financial year. Estimates were upwardly revised in the middle of the financial year, after IKEA?s furniture and home decor sales reached 40m euros within just a few months.

In the medium term (3-4 years) the Swedish giant?s turnover is likely to go beyond 100m euros on the domestic market. Sales of furniture items reached a weight of 60% of total sales generated by the company. Shortly after the first unit opened, IKEA representatives voiced their intention to invest in several locations domestically.

"Romania could be covered with around 6 units. For the future locations we?re looking at accessibility, visibility, infrastructure, supply routes, purchasing power, local markets, and culture, namely in cities such as Constanta, Iasi, Galati, Timisoara, Craiova and Arad. Any of these cities gives us access to over 300,000 people", said Oprisan.

As regards the funds supporting this expansion, he added these would come from the company?s own funds and in the form of bank loans.

However, he was unable to specify the location of the next IKEA unit or whether one or two units would open next