During the fiscal year that started in September 2020 and ended on August 31 of this year, and despite restrictions imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, "we had very positive results, we managed to close with €462 million in sales", said Ricardo Pereira.

"This is 5 percent above the previous year, despite having more restrictions, more complexity, more difficulty, we were able to sell above the previous year, we are very positive with the result", he added.

In the fiscal year that just ended, Ikea Portugal was affected by two lockdowns, resulting in stores being closed for 13 weeks, while in the previous period (2019/2020) stores were closed for about 11 weeks, he pointed highlighted.

"Furthermore, when the stores were opened, we had immense restrictions", with the limitation of people moving to other municipalities and the closing time on weekends at 13:00.

"That affected us a lot and even when the stores were closed we couldn't even 'click & collect' most of the time", but "we still had very positive results", he said.

Online sales were one of the main drivers of the positive result, accounting for almost a quarter (23 percent) of sales last year.

The ikea.pt website and the Ikea App registered 62.7 million visits, 36 percent more than in the previous fiscal year.

Since the reopening of stores, online sales have been hovering between 16 percent and 18 percent.

Ikea Portugal currently has five stores - Alfragide, Braga, Loures, Loulé and Matosinhos - and three planning studio points (Cascais, Seixal and Sintra).

"One of the big investments we are making for the fiscal year that started in September is to open three more planning studios," he said. They are scheduled to open in Setúbal, on 11 November, in Coimbra before Christmas, and in Leiria, in the spring of next year.

Regarding new stores, Ricardo Pereira said: "We have plans to have more stores in the future, we still see potential in Lisbon and Porto, but we don't have concrete projects yet and we have more plans to extend planning studios".

"We see this fiscal year 2022 with great optimism and confidence, so we must continue to grow, the objective is always to strengthen the teams".

He added that Ikea Portugal has invested €2.3 million in the reduction of the prices of 100 products and has also expanded the offer of services with more external partnerships and price reductions, representing an investment of about €1 million.