IKEA Starts Selling Bikes

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands – IKEA started selling bikes in The Netherlands recently.  For some years it’s rumoured that the furniture giant will turn to bikes as buyers and product managers from the Swedish company are regular visitors of international bike shows. Is there a new retail giant in bikes in the making, that is about to take on the biggest bike seller in Europe, Decathlon?

It’s early days to say something on that apart from the fact that it will take also IKEA some time to sell 2.4 million bikes as Decathlon did in 2007. But like the sporting goods retail giant that currently operates 405 stores in Europe and had 2007 sales close to 4.5 billion Euro, also IKEA controls an almost unprecedented distribution power.

Full scale attack

If IKEA is planning a full scale attack on the bike market in Europe is unknown as the company is not about to comment on that. Their current activities which are limited to The Netherlands only, indicate that they are testing the interest for bike products. What IKEA has on offer in Holland are two bicycles: a children’s bike called Föråna priced at € 169,- (for IKEA Family-members € 129,-) and a folding bike Förvåna, for € 249,- (IKEA Family-members: € 199,-).

With these bikes IKEA is not taking its first steps in the bike sector. In December 2006 IKEA UK gave a folding bike as a Christmas present to its 9,000 employees.