As Ikea Malaysia celebrates a major milestone, country retail director Malcolm Pruys talks about keeping prices competitive, new innovations and plant balls.
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00:31 - We wanna make sure that our customers in Malaysia
00:33 understand that, yeah, life's tough today.
00:38 And we think we have a big role
00:39 when it comes to affordability
00:42 to helping out the many Malaysians
00:44 and making life a little bit easier with better prices.
00:47 There's been a lot of talk over the last couple of years
00:49 with the pandemic around the cost of living increase.
00:53 We know today that people are doing it
00:55 a bit tougher in Malaysia
00:56 than they were 12 or 18 months ago.
00:58 Less incentives in the market
01:01 for people to have a bit of extra cash.
01:04 Interest rates have gone up, cost of living, food, et cetera.
01:07 So we understand today that wallets are thinner than ever
01:12 when it comes to spending on home furnishing.
01:15 So what you'll see from us coming into FY24
01:18 is actually we've got the opportunity to lower prices again.
01:22 So whilst we had to increase prices,
01:24 I think as a good retailer,
01:26 the easiest thing to do would be leave prices where they are
01:30 and when transport and everything comes down in price
01:34 to just kind of take the fat and put it in our pocket.
01:37 And of course, we're a business,
01:38 we need to fuel our expansion and our growth
01:41 and pay our employees and do all of those things.
01:43 But we're gonna give back a little bit
01:45 to the customer this year, not the total range,
01:49 but kind of 300 of the products
01:52 that we think are most important to the many Malaysians
01:55 and they're gonna get a better deal coming into FY24,
01:58 as we call it, so from the 1st of September this year.
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03:11 - Hoping that we're gonna be able to shift some people
03:15 to start thinking about how they eat more sustainably,
03:18 as well as having many, many more plant-based options
03:22 and also a little bit more kind of portion control.
03:25 That doesn't mean to give people less, but charge the same,
03:28 but to encourage people to eat
03:31 within the limits of their bellies, you could say,
03:36 right, no matter how much they love us.
03:37 'Cause that's how you shift behavior.
03:40 That's how you make change.
03:42 And it's the same with the batteries as well, right?
03:45 No more alkaline batteries,
03:47 no single use plastic in the range,
03:49 no plastic packaging in any of our deliveries
03:53 or any of our products by 2025.
03:55 Like to do that for 10,000 SKUs
03:59 in a very short period of time
04:01 to completely change the way you package every product.
04:04 That's a phenomenal shift.
04:06 We have a responsibility to source ethically,
04:11 to think about the environment
04:13 and to give customers plenty of options
04:15 to have alternatives to say traditional red meat,
04:20 white meat, fish.
04:22 Well, now there's a plant-based option.
04:24 So we're not taking anything away, we're adding.
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05:02 Some of those collaborations, of course,
05:04 that we do with other brands that are either hot
05:06 or relevant or exciting for the consumer today.
05:10 But I still think the essence of what we do
05:12 still sits with understanding life at home
05:16 and trying to be for the many people.
05:18 Doesn't really matter if you live in Sweden
05:21 or if you live in Malaysia.
05:23 Everybody needs something to sit on,
05:25 something to eat noodles out of,
05:27 something to drink coffee out of,
05:30 something to sleep on,
05:31 something to dry yourself with after the shower.
05:34 So we have more commonalities than we have differences.
05:37 And I think that's where IKEA understands
05:40 its markets very well,
05:41 but actually there's more things in common than are different.
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