Ikea, international retail furnishing giant, will open their first outlet in Lithuania’s capital city,Vilnius, in 2013. The move will provide an added economic boon to Lithuania not only in the form of jobs opportunities, as Ikea is seeking staffing solutions for many sectors – sales, marketing, consumer relations, logistics, communication and design, business coordination and IT – but also Ikea’s continued high investment in the Lithuanian forestry and furniture manufacturing industries. In 2005 Ikea created 40 jobs in Kaunas, Lithuania, by creating an administration centre to cater for its European operations, a project costing 1.28 million Euros, and in 2008 Ikea made a substantial investment in one of Lithuania’s largest furniture factories for the development of the Baltic Sea Region, at a total project cost of 72.4 million Euros.
Since 2011 annual scholarships for students from Russia and the Baltic Region have been supported by Ikea at the Swedish University of Agricultural Science in Alnarp, Sweden for the study of forestry and to promote sustainable forestry in countries that provide important wood sources for Ikea. As Ikea’s long term objective is to source all their wood from forests certified as responsibly managed, they have been a member of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) since 1993, an organisation which sets international standards for responsible forest management. Ikea’s input in Lithuanian forestry in this respect can only have beneficial repercussions and encourage further investment internationally.
