JOHOR BAHRU (March 29): Swedish furniture maker IKEA is eyeing a third store in the capital of Malaysia but there is no timeline as to when the development will be announced.

“We’re progressing with IKEA Batu Kawan, Penang. The development is ongoing and we will take a little break in Malaysia and see how it goes. We also had our e-commerce in Peninsular Malaysia implemented this year.

“We are also looking at how we could serve East Malaysia better. Having said that, we are looking at a third store in Kuala Lumpur at some point in time but there’s no date to that yet.

“The next new market [that we’re expanding to] would be the Philippines, where we’re opening in 2020,” IKEA Southeast Asia managing director Christian Rojkjaer told the media today at the announcement of the 1.1 million sq ft Toppen Shopping Centre next to IKEA Tebrau.

According to Rojkjaer, IKEA is evaluating the East Malaysian market, where the Swedish furniture maker is looking to expand the shipping of its online store to East Malaysia.

“We are looking [at East Malaysia] and the first step would be to implement the e-commerce of IKEA first, and then we will see if we should have a physical presence there,” he said.

On e-commerce disruption, IKEA Southeast Asia shopping centre and mixed-use director Christian Olofsson said it is not so much about e-commerce versus brick-and-mortar but more about how both are merged.

“For us, it’s not just about shopping. It’s about creating a meeting place that families would like to come and socialise as well as to have a meal together. There are going to be disruptions moving forward, but I believe we are well-equipped to deal with it,” he said.