Furniture and interior decorations retailer IKEA, which operates only one store in Romania, posted sales worth 99.4 million euros on the domestic market from September 2007 through to August 2008, up 24% on initial forecasts.
"We hope we'll exceed 110 million euros from sales by the end of 2009," said Cornel Oprisan, retail manager of IKEA Romania, which translates as a 10% increase against the previous fiscal year.
The Swedes launched operations in March last year, after a 25 million-euro investment in a 26,000 square metre store in Baneasa shopping area. According to data on the Finance Ministry's website, IKEA posted 15.2 million RON (4.6 million-euro) profit and 195.8 million RON (58.7 million-euro) turnover in the first nine months that ended last December.
From September 2007 through August 2008 (IKEA's financial year, which also corresponds to the period the catalogue is valid), the best-selling products on the furniture segment were the Pax storage solutions (19,700 units sold), Billy modular bookshelf systems (15.600 units) and Faktum kitchen systems (13,600 units). As for decorations, the top sellers were Sparsam light bulbs (230,000 units), Mysa and Gosa quilt and pillow series (180,000 units), as well as IKEA 365 plus products - pots, pans, jars and kitchen utensils (76,560 units).
IKEA's revenues in the 2007-2008 financial year were also helped by the sales generated by the restaurant. IKEA sold 2.5 million Swedish meatballs, 1.2 million hotdogs, and more than 227,000 Almondy desserts.
The IKEA store on the local market is a franchise held by Moaro Trading. The shareholders are the Dutch investment firm Engma, 75%, Turkmall (Netherlands), over 24% and Inter IKEA Systems B.V, less than 1%, according to Trade Registry data. Behind these entities is businessman Gabriel Popoviciu.
The presence of the IKEA group on the domes
