Ikea Halves Menu Prices in 14 Countries

Though its main business is the sale of furniture and home furnishings, Ikea’s in-house restaurants (think Swedish meatballs) also bring in $2.5 billion yearly, according to a variety of published estimates. Though that only represents roughly 6% of the Sweden-based retailer’s total revenues, providing on-site food is integral to the brand’s strategy of finding ways to keep customers on-site (and shopping) for longer periods of time.

So it’s worth noting that during today’s economic turmoil, Ingka Group (Malmo, Sweden) – the largest IKEA franchisee with 400 stores and 174 plan-and-order points of sale in 31 countries – announced it is halving the price of its restaurant meals Monday through Friday, with children eating for free, in 14 countries.

That list does not include the 60 or so stores operating under the Ikea name in U.S.; it could not be immediately determined why that is the case. The countries with stores eligible for the lower prices are: Austria, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

“Food has always been very important for IKEA, and we wanted to enable even more people to enjoy our restaurant offer while exploring our home furnishing range,” says Tolga Öncü, Ingka Group Retail Manager. “Securing the lowest possible price for our products is always our utmost goal, and this is even more important in today’s times of economic uncertainties and cost-of-living pressures.”

Click here for the full press release from Ingka Group.