Furniture Market News From Italy

¡¾2002.11.27¡¿

The Upper End market Segment

According to a recent survey by CSIL, Italian consumption of upper and medium the more expensive furniture including upholstery, kitchen and home furniture has been following a slight increasing trend over the last years to reach Euro 1,994 million in 2001 (factory prices). There was an average increase of 4% in consumption between 1998 and 2001.

This trend has been achieved by all the three segments examined, but it was the kitchen segment that was performing best, with an increase of almost 7% in 2001.

Production in the upper and medium upper end segment also followed an upwards trend and reached Euro 3,275 million in 2001. Growth was registered primarily in the upholstery and kitchen segment. The proportion of upper end furniture in total home furniture consumption is now around 20% and growing.

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IKEA set to grow further

IKEA Italia has ended its 2002' financial year with turnover of US$0.54bil., an increase of 3.7% in real terms on the previous year. The Swedish group has committed plenty of resources to Italy to develop both store network and furniture sourcing for the mother company. Italy is the fourth largest supply market to IKEA, with a total purchasing volume of US$ 59.82mil.. The number of stores is also set to increase from 7 to 23 in the next ten years, for a total investment of US$ 0.99bn.