Alternately praised for their
selection of ready-to-assemble furniture and items, and mocked as a meme target
for the same things, the European RTA manufacturing giant IKEA proves that it
has a significant market presence throughout the world that it can easily be
recognized for such actions. Amazingly, that global presence has not included
the Philippines. In November of 2018 IKEA took its first step into the Filipino
market by starting construction of a store as part of the SM Mall of Asia. Once
completed, they will be that mall’s biggest tenant. It is now February 2020,
and that massive IKEA store has not yet finished.
ABS-CBN News reports that IKEA has had to push back the planned
opening of their first and (thus far) biggest ready-to-assemble furniture store
here in the Philippines. Originally projected to be open for business this
year, after the announcement of its construction in 2018, some “construction
adjustments” have forced the global furniture brand to postpone their launch to
sometime in 2021. This was the estimate given by George Platzer, market
development manager for IKEA Southeast Asia. He could not disclose specific details
only that while construction of the store looks to be in great shape there
needed to be some changes done to the project.
The original dimensions given for
the IKEA Store on SM Mall of Asia have been eye-popping: 65,000 square meters
of total floor area, able to fit up to 200 basketball courts. It would have
five stories with two for commercial retail and the rest for warehousing and the
operation of e-commerce and call center facilities. No less than 9,000
individual IKEA products would be on offer at the store once opened, and it
will be able to cater to customers in the Greater Manila Area or about 6
million people.
George Platzer notes that IKEA’s
Philippine offices are determined to make sure that no further “opening changes”
will alter the new launch year of 2021 for their MOA store. The project,
costing P7 billion earmarked by IKEA Southeast Asia, is said to be massive
enough to offer, at minimum 500 regular store employees and unspecified numbers
of additional logistics staff.
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