The world’s largest furniture retailer, Ikea, grew sales by 3.1% in the last year as it increased its market share across its global portfolio.
The privately owned Swedish firm said that sales hit £23.8bn in the year to end August. Last year it set itself a target of doubling sales by 2020 to €50 billion.
New chief executive Peter Agnefjaell said: “Value for money is increasingly important to our customers — and our sales development shows that people all over the world appreciate our concept of good quality, well-designed products at low prices.”
Ikea, famed for its flat pack furniture and huge warehouse like stores, said operations in southern Europe had continued to be hit by low consumer confidence and austerity measures.
Some of its strongest growth was seen in Russia and China and said it made significant progress in North America.
It now has 303 stores globally, visited by 690m people last year, and said it had increased its share in ‘almost all markets.