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Furniture retailer Ikea, which is planning to open a store in Lithuania next year, will force other players in the market to pull up, and if they won’t do this, they could even go bankrupt, writes delfi.lt referring to “Vilnius Diena.”

It is thought the newly opening Ikea store will not frighten only the niche furniture retailers. “Such a large player with all its possibilities and price [policies] as Ikea will surely influence other companies in the market. Companies operating in the same sector as Ikea will be swept out,” said Raimundas Bernotas, director of the association Lithuania Wood.

Director of  the Economics and Finance Department of the Lithuanian Confederation of Industrialists Sigitas Besagirskas says he does not believe that Ikea will somehow shake the market. According to him, a significant number of our country’s manufacturers supply Ikea, thus it is unlikely that their numbers will decrease significantly.

The company Freda alone is planning to sell production worth 223 million litas to Ikea this year. According to Freda’s director Antanas Emužis, Ikea will show Lithuanians what they have not yet seen: attractive prices, ideas and an absolutely different view on possibilities for furnishing their homes.

“Currently, large furniture stores in our country sell their products with 200 to 300 percent markups, which makes products not affordable to many; also, furniture buyers are made to wait for two or three months. It literally is a mockery of customers. And Ikea’s strategy is to sell the product on the same day,” he said.

Emužis also said he thought local small sellers will simply be forced out of business, while the larger ones will have to change their attitudes towards customers.

Translated by Eglė Lukoševičiūtė
Edited by Tara Edelen