IKEA has finally left Russia – the Swedish Ingka Group has sold its last…
The buyer is businessman Robert Uzilov, owner of several warehouse complexes in Moscow and the region. Its representatives confirmed the purchase of the warehouse to us, but refused to share the details.
According to Mash, the transaction amount is 12–13 billion rubles. For this money, the owner receives a “smart” warehouse complex with an area of almost 180,000 m² with the ability to store up to 200,000 pallets at a time. In 2019, IKEA invested about 11 billion rubles in it. At the opening ceremony, Ingka CEO Patrick Anthony was optimistic:
Russia is an important strategic market for the Ingka group of companies. Over the past three years, we have invested more than 70 billion rubles in business development in Russia. This is the largest investment in the IKEA world and a necessary prerequisite for the further development of the Ingka group of companies in Russia.
But in March 2022, Ikea made the most sensible decision to close all its stores, factories and warehouses in Russia and Belarus. By 2023, it sold its main assets: the factories went to large timber processing enterprises, 14 Mega shopping centers were bought extremely profitably by Gazprombank. Ikea itself extended the right to the trademark in Russia in February 2023 so that no one would “take away” the name if it suddenly decides to return to the “strategic market.”
