In review: Ingka Group 2021

For FY21, Ingka Group sales totalled EUR 37.4 billion, an increase of 6.3% compared to the previous year. As shown in the IKEA Life at Home Report, people have adapted their homes to their new realities – optimising space, creating functional homes for changing needs and finding balance between productivity and relaxation.

Investing in new customer meeting points, digital transformation, and sustainability
For FY21, Ingka Group invested EUR 3.2 billion in physical and online retail operations to meet customers’ changing needs, including extensive investment in physical stores, distribution and customer fulfilment networks, omnichannel transformation, digital customer experience, renewable energy, zero-emission vehicles and forestry.

New customer meeting points
In FY21, Ingka Group opened new IKEA stores in China, Germany, India, Poland and Slovenia[MS1][EA2]. In February, the first IKEA store in Slovenia opened its doors in Ljubljana. The store is one of the most centrally located IKEA stores in the world, with advanced sustainability features in place, such as solar panels and vegetation on the roof, geothermal pumps for heating, and a rain collection system for water saving.

New planning studios opened in Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Russia, Spain, and Sweden. In Sweden, IKEA announced a wide range of new openings in cities around the country. The first one out was the new planning studio in Stockholm, which opened in July. IKEA small stores and shops were opened in Austria, France, India, Japan, Russia, Spain, the UK, Ukraine, and USA.

IKEA continues to test smaller store solutions to spread home furnishing expertise to the many people and to get closer to its customers. The IKEA planning studios don’t offer products to be brought home directly, instead IKEA customers get the opportunity to meet home furnishing experts and receive personalised service to plan their homes or order products from the entire IKEA range. All products are then delivered where the customer prefers. 

Acquisition of iconic shopping location on 214 Oxford Street
Ingka Investments signed a conditional purchase agreement to acquire prime real estate for IKEA Retail in the heart of London at 214 Oxford Street. The property comprises a total of 22,200 sqm over seven floors, with retail space on six floors. Part of the retail space will be used by IKEA UK & Ireland, with the store estimated to open in autumn 2023.

Minority investment in Fluid Truck
Ingka Investments made a minority investment in Fluid Truck, an app-based rental solution, offering short-to-medium term vehicle rentals and outsourced fleet management solutions. This investment supports the ambition of Ingka Group to become climate positive by 2030 cutting CO2 emissions in all stages of the value chain, including home deliveries.

IKEA providing EV chargers at all stores
Another step towards becoming climate positive by 2030, was to announce IKEA is now providing access to EV charging stations in all stores where parking is provided. Ingka Group is also exploring other ways to enable people to travel to the IKEA stores in more sustainable, affordable and convenient ways such as working with public transport and mobility as a service solution to vehicle sharing, bikes and much more. 

Global launch of IKEA app to reach new younger buyers
The new IKEA app was launched in all Ingka Group markets, offering customers a simple and enjoyable way to find, choose and buy products fast. The dynamic feed of shoppable content has a fresh, contemporary design, allowing users to explore the range, check product information, read ratings and reviews, and add items to their wish list, favourites list or cart. When signed in, users can access carts created on other devices, giving customers an ‘omnichannel experience’.  

Ingka Investments acquired land in New Zealand  
As part of its commitment to responsible forest management, Ingka Investments, the investment arm of Ingka Group, acquired land in New Zealand. The property is located in Otago in the South Island and will be used for a 30 plus year afforestation scheme to plant new forests.

As a long-term investment, Ingka Investments will focus on growing the forest over this period which will contribute to removing CO2 from the atmosphere, storing carbon and developing an ecosystem to encourage and sustain biodiversity.

Becoming people and planet positive
In 2021, Ingka Group continued to integrate sustainability in all aspects of the business, promoting sustainable living, circularity, and fair and inclusive growth. 

International Women’s Day and online game FiftyFifty sparked conversation about equality
For International Women’s Day, IKEA developed a free digital game called FiftyFifty in collaboration with relationship expert Jennie Miller. To support the launch of the game and inspire as many people as possible to play, IKEA partnered with Swedish singer, and passionate feminist, Zara Larsson, using her voice and platform to speak openly about an issue that is close to her heart, while performing songs from her new album ‘Poster Girl’. The concert was streamed on YouTube to fans all over the world.

IKEA adopted Progress Flag for IDAHOT
To mark this year’s International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOT) on 17 May, Ingka Group adopted the Progress Flag, sharing a set of actionable tips for how people can be stronger allies to the LGBT+ community, and continuing to donate a percentage of sales from the STORSTOMMA rainbow bag to local LGBT+ organisations.

IKEA participating in World Pride
In August, World Pride was held in Copenhagen (Denmark) and Malmö (Sweden), where IKEA participated in events to stand up for LGBT+ rights. LGBT+ inclusion is an ongoing commitment and core belief for IKEA, that goes beyond flags and parades. We stand up against hate and discrimination of any kind and want to help build a world that is inclusive of all sexual orientations and gender identities – a world where nobody feels the need to conceal who they are or who they love.  

Promoting equality and diversity  
Ingka Group launched the campaign #BeSomeonesHome, to celebrate the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia (IDAHOT) in May. The #BeSomeonesHome campaign invited co-workers and customers to make the LGBT+ community feel at home and welcomed by embodying a shelter for all those who are discriminated and stigmatised, and struggle to find safety and comfort in their families and societies.  

World refugee day 
On World Refugee Day, 20 June, Ingka Group reiterated its commitment to refugees as it continues to roll out a skills for employment concept for refugees in its IKEA Retail markets. The concept includes job training and language skills initiatives. Refugees and displaced persons are the most affected by the pandemic, making this support more relevant than ever. 

Continued commitment to climate action at COP26
The year culminated with IKEA participating in the COP26 meeting in Glasgow, UK, where the company continued its commitment to climate action by sharing and providing solutions for a climate-friendly and equal world.

During COP26, Ingka Group joined forces with London-based creative studio Superflux in an exhibition inside The New York Times Climate Hub. The exhibition ‘Assembling our Future’ showcased how IKEA accelerates climate action; showing how AI is used to reduce food waste in IKEA restaurants, how IKEA provides solutions to reduce energy use at home, how we source and use sustainable materials and how electric vehicles deliver IKEA goods.

One Home, One Planet
The participation and engagement at COP26 continued in the hosting of the third edition of the sustainability event One Home, One Planet. One Home One Planet brings together purpose-driven, ideas-led doers, thinkers and influencers from across different sectors. Together with IKEA, they work to break down barriers to solving key social and environmental challenges facing the world – challenges that, more than ever, need urgent attention.

Green Friday month
Building on last year’s success on the journey towards lowering the climate footprint, Ingka Group ran its month-long Green Friday campaign during November. IKEA stores in 32 countries encouraged people to save more than money by bringing back their preloved IKEA products in return for a voucher. In addition to buy back furniture, customers were offered the chance to choose pre-loved items when shopping at IKEA, both online and in store.

Sustainable Living Shop to inspire customers to climate action
As a step towards inspiring and making it easier for customers to make sustainable choices and live more sustainably, Ingka Group implemented a new Sustainable Living Shop across its 32 markets. The dedicated space in the store focuses on highlighting accessible and affordable products and solutions among the existing IKEA range that will support people to take small steps and reduce their climate impact and household costs by using less energy, reducing single use, creating less waste, using less water and caring, repairing, reselling and recycling.