Put down that Äpplarö instruction manual, and cease the search for that precious Allen key you know is somewhere because you have like, 50 at this point: IKEA is building their regional distribution and supply chain center for Southeast Asia in Malaysia. Rejoice, peoples.
The Star reports that IKEA Malaysia’s distribution center will adopt the same model as the company’s biggest, located in Germany. When finished, it will be among the top 10 largest in the world. The company will invest RM908 million (US$212 million) into the project.
The new warehouse will be 100,000 square meters of aisle-26-bin-infinity fun, with the latest IT systems and automation “to reduce the dependency on labor” says the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (Mida).
Cool, so basically an IKEA warehouse run by robots, which sounds like the beginnings of a terrible horror film that ends with humanity being flat-packed into the back of your own car.
We digress: the warehouse will manage an inventory of 9,500 stock units, which will hopefully mean that 12 regional IKEA stores in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, India, as well as Malaysia, have greater facility and access to good.
Fingers crossed this means less out of stock Hemnes drawers.
Mida also added that the decision to build the IKEA hub in Malaysia was not just regionally strategic, but that our country was a significant market for the brand. Apparently, Malaysian retail IKEAs are among the most visited globally.
Thank you, Mida, for confirming what we already know: 90% of people in IKEA Damansara are buying nothing, sitting in living rooms not their own, watching cardboard TVs, and killing time before they treat themselves with RM2 soft serve.
