From left: Taha Iqbal, External Communications Manager, IKEA KSA; Faisal Al Gain, Country Marketing Manager, IKEA KSA; Saud Al Sulaiman, CEO of IKEA KSA; and Mazen Yassin, Deputy County Marketing Manager, IKEA KSA pose for a group photo during the launch of IKEA Catalogue 2014. Ghassan Ahmed Al Sulaiman Furniture Trading Co. Ltd., IKEA Saudi Arabia, unveiled Wednesday its latest “More Inspiring than Ever” IKEA Catalogue, in celebration of its 30 year presence in the Saudi market. The new catalogue is a revelation as it will innovatively reduce time spent choosing the best home furnishings while also incorporating a myriad of ideas that inspire families and bring joy to their lives. The new 2014 IKEA Catalogue focuses on making the house design experience a most convenient one through its interactive functions that allow for the selection and placing of desired furniture in all the rooms of the house. This is achieved through applications that help mix and match the best choices of furniture. IKEA's catalogue is a bundle of fun and solutions as it inspires its customers through its endless possibilities of browsing through the catalogue and selecting desired product made in different designs and colors to suit everyone's taste. Saud Ghassan Al Sulaiman, CEO of IKEA Saudi Arabia, said: “At IKEA our vision is to create a better everyday life for the many people”. Our business idea supports this vision by offering a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products which combine taste, workmanship at affordable prices for all.” Asked by Saudi Gazette on the viability of setting up a manufacturing plant in Saudi Arabia for some of its synthetic products, like lamps, chandeliers, among others – considering that the Kingdom is the world's biggest producer of synthetic resins basically used in the manufacture of plastics, adhesives, varnish, synthetic fibers, and the likes – the IKEA KSA CEO said it considers the plan and would raise the issue to the IKEA mother company. He did not give any definite time frame though. Ghassan Ahmed Al Sulaiman Furniture Trading Co. Ltd, IKEA was established in Saudi Arabia with the opening of the first store in Jeddah in 1983 on an area no larger than 500 square meters. Two successful years down the road, the store was expanded to an area of 7,000 square meters with a separate warehouse that measured 10,000 square meters. Over 30 years of success, IKEA was able to expand by opening three showrooms in Jeddah, Riyadh and Dhahran where it currently employs more than 1,299 employees in a balanced work environment with a nationalization rate nearing 60 percent. Today, IKEA is considered to provide one of the most attractive work environments in the world. A recent global index by Universum Global entitled “World's Most Attractive Employers of 2013” showed that IKEA outshines others when it comes to attracting talented employees while also managing to maintain them, thus justifying its admission in the index's top 50. Known for its long history of maintaining quality products while also understanding consumer demands, IKEA was also most recently named as one of the top 100 most valuable global brands by the BRAND Z index. Al Sulaiman added : “Today's celebration of the launch of the 2014 IKEA Catalogue comes under our commitment and loyalty to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for past 30 years. We want to emphasize our appreciation to the consumers in the Saudi market and strive to offer them products that match their aspirations to live in their dream house.” Faisal Al-Gain, Country Marketing Manager at IKEA Saudi Arabia, said: “We consider the 2014 IKEA Catalogue an inspiration for a better life. It is a digital free guide platform which contains ideas and creative solutions of our competitively priced products, guaranteed, all year long.” He added: “Smart ideas, fun stories and beautiful products are key elements in the content of this catalogue. It is available in 2.7 million copies and is being distributed in 80 percent of households in Saudi cities where IKEA is available. The augmented reality application can be downloaded on your smartphone or through our website at www.ikea.com/sa.” Starting November, IKEA will start distributing significant rewards to celebrate the launch of the 30th IKEA Catalogue in Saudi Arabia with thousands of prizes to be given out over the next three months. — SG
