Ikea opens first Middle East distribution centre in Dubai

Ikea Group has opened its first distribution center in the Middle East in Dubai as part of its plans to expand across the region.

Located in Dubai South, the new unit is spread over 100,000 square meters of storage space, which is equivalent to almost 20 football pitches.

The structure is composed of 120,000 cubic meters of racking, plus 8 levels of storage distributed across 2 modules of operations. It is estimated to take more than 10,000 steps just to walk around the new center.

Khalifa Al Zaffin, Executive Chairman of Dubai Aviation City Corporation, said: “At Dubai South, we are ideally placed to support companies of all sizes in meeting their logistical challenges. We do so by offering purpose built, fully customizable solutions, giving them the freedom to operate and grow their businesses in the best way possible.”

Abdeldaziz Kadri, Managing Director of Ikea DC Dubai, said it’s the first direct investment by the group in the Middle East.

“The new distribution center will enable the company to deliver fast-moving products more efficiently to stores across the GCC, lowering handling costs as well as shipment times,” said Kadri.

The new Ikea Distribution Center is already the workplace for more than 200 employees, and is generating many opportunities for local suppliers. They are working together with the aim to improve product availability in Ikea stores and maximize customer satisfaction.

Today there are seven Ikea stores in the GCC: two in the UAE (Dubai and Abu Dhabi), one in Doha (Qatar), three in Saudi Arabia (Riyadh, Jeddah and Dhahran) and one in Kuwait City (Kuwait).

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