“Once the e-commence platform is up, customers will be able to shop online from all four Malaysian stores.”
CHRISTIAN ROJKJAER, IKEA Southeast Asia managing director
BATU KAWAN: Swedish furniture giant IKEA is set to open its fourth Malaysian store in Penang in 2019.
With total investment of RM600 million, IKEA Batu Kawan is expected to be the only IKEA store in the north.
IKEA Southeast Asia managing director Christian Rojkjaer said Malaysia might not see any new IKEA store after this for “many years to come”.
Rojkjaer said this was because IKEA was set to launch an e-commerce site for Malaysia beginning next year.
“Once the e-commence platform is up, customers will be able to shop online from all four Malaysian stores,” he said after the groundbreaking of the IKEA Batu Kawan outlet, here, yesterday.
Present to officiate at the ceremony was Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, Swedish ambassador to Malaysia Dag JuhlinDannfelt, Japanese consulategeneral in Penang Kiyoshi Itoi, IKEA Batu Kawan store manager Pathmalingam Arumugam and Aspen Group president and chief executive officer Datuk M. Murly.
Pathmalingam said the e-commerce site would first be launched in Singapore within two weeks, before its introduction to the Malaysian market next year.
Meanwhile, Rojkjaer said the company was looking to create more than 400 jobs for locals.
“Besides bringing with it hundreds of new jobs, it will also create spin-off business for suppliers and draw in visitors.
“The groundbreaking for this project means a lot to us. We know the people in the north have been waiting a long time for a big blue IKEA store of their own,” he added.
IKEA has two stores in Damansara and Cheras in the Klang Valley. The third store in Tebrau, Johor, is slated to open by year-end. Audrey Dermawan
With a target to double the intra-Asean trade by 2025, the Asean Single Window has been implemented while an Asean-wide self-certification scheme will be in place in 2018.