NEWS: Ikea Malaysia on changing habits and strategies

The Edge TV

As Ikea Malaysia celebrates a major milestone, country retail director Malcolm Pruys talks about keeping prices competitive, new innovations and plant balls.

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00:31 - We wanna make sure that our customers in Malaysia

00:33 understand that, yeah, life's tough today.

00:38 And we think we have a big role

00:39 when it comes to affordability

00:42 to helping out the many Malaysians

00:44 and making life a little bit easier with better prices.

00:47 There's been a lot of talk over the last couple of years

00:49 with the pandemic around the cost of living increase.

00:53 We know today that people are doing it

00:55 a bit tougher in Malaysia

00:56 than they were 12 or 18 months ago.

00:58 Less incentives in the market

01:01 for people to have a bit of extra cash.

01:04 Interest rates have gone up, cost of living, food, et cetera.

01:07 So we understand today that wallets are thinner than ever

01:12 when it comes to spending on home furnishing.

01:15 So what you'll see from us coming into FY24

01:18 is actually we've got the opportunity to lower prices again.

01:22 So whilst we had to increase prices,

01:24 I think as a good retailer,

01:26 the easiest thing to do would be leave prices where they are

01:30 and when transport and everything comes down in price

01:34 to just kind of take the fat and put it in our pocket.

01:37 And of course, we're a business,

01:38 we need to fuel our expansion and our growth

01:41 and pay our employees and do all of those things.

01:43 But we're gonna give back a little bit

01:45 to the customer this year, not the total range,

01:49 but kind of 300 of the products

01:52 that we think are most important to the many Malaysians

01:55 and they're gonna get a better deal coming into FY24,

01:58 as we call it, so from the 1st of September this year.

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03:11 - Hoping that we're gonna be able to shift some people

03:15 to start thinking about how they eat more sustainably,

03:18 as well as having many, many more plant-based options

03:22 and also a little bit more kind of portion control.

03:25 That doesn't mean to give people less, but charge the same,

03:28 but to encourage people to eat

03:31 within the limits of their bellies, you could say,

03:36 right, no matter how much they love us.

03:37 'Cause that's how you shift behavior.

03:40 That's how you make change.

03:42 And it's the same with the batteries as well, right?

03:45 No more alkaline batteries,

03:47 no single use plastic in the range,

03:49 no plastic packaging in any of our deliveries

03:53 or any of our products by 2025.

03:55 Like to do that for 10,000 SKUs

03:59 in a very short period of time

04:01 to completely change the way you package every product.

04:04 That's a phenomenal shift.

04:06 We have a responsibility to source ethically,

04:11 to think about the environment

04:13 and to give customers plenty of options

04:15 to have alternatives to say traditional red meat,

04:20 white meat, fish.

04:22 Well, now there's a plant-based option.

04:24 So we're not taking anything away, we're adding.

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05:02 Some of those collaborations, of course,

05:04 that we do with other brands that are either hot

05:06 or relevant or exciting for the consumer today.

05:10 But I still think the essence of what we do

05:12 still sits with understanding life at home

05:16 and trying to be for the many people.

05:18 Doesn't really matter if you live in Sweden

05:21 or if you live in Malaysia.

05:23 Everybody needs something to sit on,

05:25 something to eat noodles out of,

05:27 something to drink coffee out of,

05:30 something to sleep on,

05:31 something to dry yourself with after the shower.

05:34 So we have more commonalities than we have differences.

05:37 And I think that's where IKEA understands

05:40 its markets very well,

05:41 but actually there's more things in common than are different.

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