licensee in Perth and Adelaide, bringing the total number in Australia to 11. “For the last few years we’ve had a very clear plan of what we want to do by 2020,” Hood told Inside Retail PREMIUM. “There was an idea that we would do a store a year, maybe a bit more, but the feeling now is that we need to accelerate that and do four stores close together.” One reason behind the acceleration is the exceptional growth the brand has seen, with sales in the current financial year started September 2013 sitting at more than eight per cent. “Our business is very strong this year, we did very well, and we’re outperforming the market quite considerably,” said Hood. “With our stores we don’t just take a lease and move in in six weeks time, it can sometimes take years to secure the land, get the application and development process, and build the store. It’s a little bit more complex.” The Ikea brand has been in Australia for more than 30 years, however, only began rolling out in its true global format here in 2003. “We spent many years in Australia with small stores, which aren’t what Ikea has in any other country. In 2003 we started to properly develop the concept – full size stores of 25,000sqm plus, and surprise, surprise, these stores were very successful,” says Hood. The five stores on the east coast are operated by the global Ikea entity under Hood’s watch. “When you have five, you are in a little bit of a no man’s land, on the east coast at least. We now need to secure even more in Melbourne and Sydney especially, as well as Brisbane, and have an extra store in the market in areas where these cities are growing. “Further down the line, of course you need the volume and mass when you look at our supply chain. Our stores stock everything, they are big units, they’re not a high street store with an external warehouse, so we need to take that bigger step to take the next jump. “If you look at the total brand, I think Ikea in this country can support 14 stores. That includes Perth and Adelaide. That’s my opinion. “If you look at the east coast, for sure we can support 12 stores.” A fourth location in Melbourne, the NSW Central Coast, and another store in Sydney’s west are considerations for future Ikea stores. “We also have the regional areas to consider, and whether that gets serviced by online. “Possibly in many years time regional could have a different format of store, so we need to think about how we look at regional Queensland and Victoria. It’s not a priority at the moment, it’s very long term, but it’s something we’ll have discussions about.” Ikea, Tempe Stores The smallest Ikea store in Australia sits at 25,000sqm, with the Melbourne and Sydney flagships spanning 36,000sqm and 38,000sqm. The new Canberra store will be 28,000sqm. “We have nothing now that is out of line to you would get in any other Ikea country. Australian stores are very typical – in fact, I would say mid-sized – we have stores now being built in Korea that are 55,000sqm,” said Hood. The range is identical internationally, with less than one per cent localised, mostly as a result of restrictions on importation, or issues such as kitchen sizes differing between the US, Europe, and Australia. Ikea stocks a core range of around 9500 SKUs, with the number of products available instore tailored to footprints. In Australia, a typical store moves around 10,000 pallets of stock a year. Hood attributes Ikea’s success to its uniformity across the globe. “We don’t go to a different country and say, ‘well they don’t like white here, so we’ll sell a different colour’. “The core range is the core range and you have to sell it, we don’t adjust and adapt and have lots of different ranges in different parts of the world, and that gives us tremendous efficiencies logistically, from a production point of view, right back to our supply chain. “Our stores and the way we operate are not really geared up to handle ones and twos.”