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A Swedish furniture company renowned for its ready-to-assemble furniture range aims to cook up a special treat in its massive restaurant with a special take on its equally-famous meatballs.
To cater for local tastes and sensibilities IKEA’s traditional recipe will not be dished out at its upcoming 2,500sqm, 800-seat Bahrain diner. Halal beef meatballs will be introduced in place and other options, like chicken and vegetarian meatballs, will also be featured on the menu.
Fruto Hernandez, IKEA Saudi country expansion and property manager, told GulfWeekly: “IKEA Bahrain once completed will be the largest in the region and the largest store goes hand-in-hand with the biggest restaurant in the kingdom!
“Besides the Swedish-style and international dishes, the menu will also include local favourites along with healthy, organic and vegetarian options so everyone leaves satisfied.”
All meat will be locally-sourced, in line with IKEA’s ‘sustainability efforts aimed at making ‘a positive impact on people and the planet’ and to also promote the kingdom’s economy, the company says.
IKEA is as well-known globally for its Swedish meatballs as it is for its flat pack furniture with recent reports estimating that it sold more than 11.6 billion of them to British customers alone since it first opened there in 1987. There have even been suggestions that the company may be considering opening stand-alone restaurants.
But the in-store concept still works well. Gerd Diewald, head of IKEA’s food operations in America, explained: “We’ve always called the meatballs ‘the best sofa-seller’ because it’s hard to do business with hungry customers.
“When you feed them, they stay longer, they can talk about their potential purchases, and they make a decision without leaving the store. That was the thinking right at the beginning.”
Although the original IKEA menu has proved popular, the company has been forced to diversify it to cater to different diets. In 2015 the vegetarian meatballs made from chickpeas were added after petitions from campaigners.
Research has also found that 30 per cent of IKEA food customers visit the store with no intention of buying furniture, but just to eat.
The Salmabad store is set to open by the middle of next year in partnership with Saudi Arabia’s Ghassan Ahmed Al Sulaiman Furniture Trading Company, IKEA Saudi Arabia, with a total investment of BD47million.
Construction of the flagship facility, which will have a total retail area of 37,000sqm, is currently under way and is expected to create work for 700 people.
The main contractor for the project is Kooheji Contractors. Once completed, it will have a 6,200sqm showroom in addition to a market hall covering the area of 6,000sqm. The store will have a self-serve area of 5,000sqm and 4,000sqm of full serve area. It will also boast two underground and one outdoor parking area with a capacity of 1,250 cars.
IKEA has 385 stores spread over 48 countries including three outlets in neighbouring Saudi Arabia in Dhahran, Riyadh and Jeddah. There are plans to open at least 10 more stores over the next few years.
