Out of the 7,000 items on display in IKEA, only 10% come from domestic producers and although the furniture retailer records sales worth millions of euros, very little is logged in the balance sheets of IKEA's domestic suppliers.
In some cases, only one item out of one thousand reaches the Bucharest store.
The only thing that would have a significant impact on domestic suppliers' business would be an increase in the number of stores operated under the IKEA brand in Romania. This year, IKEA has budgeted sales worth around 40-50m euros and, in the coming period, the company anticipates an increase in the number of domestic suppliers. Until this happens, the companies currently supplying products for the IKEA store in Bucharest say their activities will largely remain unaffected.
Plimob, one of IKEA's top five suppliers on the Romanian market, has so far delivered just seven items to the Bucharest store, whereas the company's international IKEA deliveries revolve around 15m euros.
"In order for our business to be boosted by a Romanian IKEA retail unit, the number of stores needs to increase. Considering IKEA has more than 200 stores worldwide, one store on the domestic market does not make any difference at all," stated Marcel Puscasu, general manager of Ecolor, a company producing furniture exclusively for the Swedish group.
At present, the only production unit IKEA owns entirely is Swedwood, located in Siret town, Suceava county. Another IKEA supplier, Sortilemn of Gherla, is also registering a similar situation.
According to Eugenia Hedesiu, marketing manager with Sortilemn, although the opening of the IKEA store in Bucharest has failed to generate any significant changes in terms of production capacities, Sortilemn has, nevertheless, witnessed some changes at the level of product delivery on the domestic market.
Despite IKEA not having the expected impact, suppliers still intend to operate investments in production capacities.
For instance, Elocor will invest around 3m euros this year in expanding its plant and acquiring new equipment.
The company expects to reach a turnover worth around 16m euros this year, double the value registered last year. Ecolor produces three furniture models for IKEA and the firm will continue to produce the same models in 2007, but in a larger quantity.
IKEA has had a domestic office for several years and purchases furniture worth over 200m euros. In Romania, IKEA works with approximately 40 suppliers and primarily buys solid wood and chipboard furniture.
The company is considering opening a second Romanian store within the next two years.
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