IKEA celebrates 30 yrs of furnishing kuwait homes
IKEA held a press conference at their store in The Avenues to celebrate their 30th anniversary in Kuwait. The anniversary event was hosted by Marino Maganto, CEO of SYH Retail and Ahmad Al Humaidhi, Store Manager of IKEA Kuwait. Both of them highlighted the importance of the 30th year milestone.
Since opening its doors on April 24, 1984, IKEA Kuwait has provided well designed, good quality home furnishing solutions to Kuwaiti homes. For 30 years, IKEA has helped the many people of Kuwait to make a better everyday life at affordable prices.
Commenting on IKEA’s history in Kuwait, Marino Maganto, CEO of SYH Retail said: “For the last 30 years, we have offered our customers a fun day for the whole family, with more than 25 million visitors, and we will continue to welcome them for many years to come. At IKEA we are proud of the long and rich relationship we have with the local com- munity. Since 1984 to today, we continue to support different social initiatives. As an important part of our values, sustainability is always considered in everything we do. Two good examples: we recycle all the cartons we use and very soon all the light bulbs we sell will be LED. These lights use 80% less energy than normal light bulbs.”
IKEA refurbished the original showroom to reopen in 1995 and launched an even bigger store in The Avenues in 2007, with a showroom that more than doubled the number of room settings from 20 to 42.
“Over the years IKEA has grown to play an important role inspiring the many people in Kuwait by providing functional, good quality home furnishing solutions,” said Al Humaidhi, “we continuously work to understand the needs of the Kuwait market to be able to offer solutions that are relevant to our local customers,” he continued.
Accordingly, IKEA has also become a sec- ond home for many families in Kuwait, with a restaurant, a bistro and a supervised children’s play area, Smaland. In fact, IKEA Restaurant has served more than 45 million meatballs since the opening in 1984.
The original IKEA Kuwait had the first navigation tower of any IKEA worldwide. Since 1984, IKEA’s iconic catalogue has been distributed in Kuwait.
Al Humaidhi highlighted the importance of the customers and the coworkers in the history of IKEA: “From our launch in 1984 to the launch of our new store in The Avenues, the people of Kuwait have built a special bond with IKEA and many customers have shared with us memories of our first location in Shuwaikh. We have several coworkers who have been proudly working with IKEA for these 30 years and we encourage them to continue with us for many years to come,” Al Humaidhi concluded.