IKEA bought furniture and décor from about 20 local producers paying more EUR489 million in the September 2014 to August 2015 financial year, which accounts for a little more than 3% of what it buys worldwide. This value puts Romania on the 8th place among IKEA’s most important supplier countries. The top three are China, 25%, Poland, 19% and Italy, 8%.
“The most successful product made in Romania was a mug sold for EUR5 and made by Apulum in Alba Iulia,” said Henrik Elm, global purchase development manager of IKEA.
IKEA started working almost from scratch with the family that founded Apulum and now that company is one of the most automated and competitive worldwide. Another success story is the partnership with furniture manufacturer Aramis in Baia Mare (northern Romania), which started on the wrong foot, though. Now Aramis is the largest Romanian-held exporter and almost 100% of its production goes to IKEA. Aramis and IKEA even made a joint investment in mattress production, the IKEA official added.
The products made in Romania that go to the IKEA store in Bucharest account for 0.7% of total value a year or EUR3.4 million, which means most of the products the retailer buys from local entrepreneurs reach its stores abroad.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)