Ikea UK annual sales jump 11 pct

The British arm of Ikea, the world's largest furniture retailer, reported an 11.3 percent rise in full-year sales on Tuesday, a fourth straight year of growth as it continued to win market share.

The privately owned Swedish company, known for its flat-pack, self-assembly furniture, said UK sales were 1.57 billion pounds ($2.38 billion) in its financial year ended August 31.

It was helped by a particularly strong performance in the area of bedroom furniture, where sales jumped 15 percent, boosted by the introduction of UK-standard bed, mattress and linen sizes to the existing product range.

Ikea's market share increased 0.5 percentage points to 7.7 percent.

With about 6 percent of global sales Britain ranks as IKEA's fifth biggest market after Germany, the United States, France and Russia.

In September, Ikea reported an 11 percent increase in fiscal full-year worldwide sales to a record 31.9 billion euros ($33.84 billion).

The firm currently trades from 18 British stores. Summer 2016 will see the opening of a new IKEA store in Reading, southern England, the first traditional Ikea store to be built in Britain in seven years.

New store locations have also been secured for Sheffield, northern England; Greenwich, in London; and Exeter, southwest England.

Ikea said in July that it would trial a smaller retail format in Britain and in early November the first Ikea Order and Collection Point was opened in Norwich, eastern England. A further Order and Collection Point is due to open in Aberdeen, Scotland, next spring.

The full year financial report 2014-15 for the IKEA Group will be published in December.

$1 = 0.6590 pounds
$1 = 0.9427 euros