Last Friday, Swedish giant Ikea announced the start-up of the construction of its second store in Mexico. The company says its second store, which is set to open in the second half of 2022, will be located in the state of Puebla.
In a statement, the Swedish firm reported that Ikea Puebla will be constructed in the Vía San Ángel shopping center in the city of Puebla with area of 11,500 square meters and a restaurant for 380 people.
“We are happy to continue sharing our Swedish culture with you and making you part of the IKEA concept and our democratic design, the basis of the creation of all our products: great form and functionality, high quality, sustainability and an affordable price in addition to the fact that with this new store, we will continue to create jobs, which at this time is so important for the country,” they said.
Ikea says that the store in Puebla will generate 150 direct job and 600 indirect jobs.
The company stressed that it continues to work on improving the service of its online store, since the pandemic has caused logistical issues, which has affected service both locally and globally.
“This, added to the very positive response of Mexican consumers, has caused a demand that exceeds what we had anticipated,” they added.
In October, Ikea began operating its online store in Mexico City, which they report, has left them with a demand 1,000 percent higher than expected.
In November, Malcolm Pruys, CEO of Ikea Mexico said “[We] launched [it] in a very discreet way because we expected to grow little, but we are very happy for the support of Mexican consumers, for the overwhelming response.
“There was 1,000 percent more demand than anticipated, which is not something you prepare for. We will hire more people to process and prepare purchase orders. We are working on a plan to have the orders ready as soon as possible and we are looking for how we are going to increase the number of people in the customer contact center.”
Currently, there are about 150 people working the online operation. Ikea Mexico continues to face challenges with another postponing of the opening of its first brick-and-mortar store.
Ikea Mexico, who is hiring staff for their first physical location in the country, says additional pandemic issues have set back the opening of their Oceania store location until October 2021.
Source：Riviera Maya News
