Ikea, furniture store, sells millions of meatballs a year

Sunday, 5 January 2025

Sales of meatballs in Ikea stores are huge. Stomach-churning quantities can outnumber daily sales of other products for the Swedish furniture giant.

In Ikea’s Tempe store in Sydney, its largest in Australia, the retailer sees between 500-700 customers through its 550-seat restaurant each day of the week and up to 2000 per day on the weekend.

Our trans-Tasman neighbour gobbles up about 13.8 million Ikea meatballs per year - and that’s just the number cooked and sold in Australia.

Food has become a huge driver of furniture sales for Ikea, particularly post-pandemic, and the retail giant is expecting similar quantities in the millions to be consumed in New Zealand when it opens the doors to its first NZ store at Auckland’s Sylvia Park at the end of next year.

Tim Prevade, Ikea country food manager for Australia, says the retailer has seen more people than ever in recent years flock to its restaurants amid high costs of living, seeking cheaper meals.

He says sales of meatballs - Ikea’s most popular food item - are paramount for the furniture retailer, which ultimately help drive furniture sales and the success of its overall business.

Prevade says food is a big part of the business. “When we first set up Ikea 80 years ago, having a restaurant in store was a really big thing. We see it as an opportunity to drive people to the store more often - because you have to eat everyday, you don’t necessarily need a sofa everyday.”

Ikea is one of the world’s largest retailers, operating in more than 60 countries with over 450 stores across the globe. Started in 1943 by Swedish entrepreneur Ingvar Kampard seeking to bring good quality, affordable furniture to Swedes, the company has grown to become a behemoth in the retail industry, and generated 45.1 billion Euros (NZ$83.2b) in sales last year.

The retailer opened its first store in Småland, and grew quickly, first expanding into Germany, Poland and Australia — one of its first international markets realised 50 years ago.

Its last new market launch was Slovenia in 2020, and New Zealand is the next country to see Ikea set up shop. Its Sylvia Park store in Auckland, currently under construction and planned to open at the end of next year, will have a 460-seat restaurant, a bistro for quick hot snacks such as hot dogs and cinnamon buns to go, and a Swedish food market, spread across its three-level 34,000m² mega store.

Prevade says the Ikea strategy was to offer affordable balanced meals and food - the types that appeal to families and students - to drive regular foot traffic into its stores.

And given the size of the Ikea stores, having a restaurant, cafe and food-to-go offerings gives a chance to keep people in the stores for longer - and ideally for the whole day, says Prevade.

“You can spend a whole day in a store if you want to. The kids can play, you can test and try things, stop and have lunch half-way through and then carry on shopping. It actually helps to keep people longer in stores.

“We want to provide a fun day out for the whole family and having a meal is a big part of that,” he says.

“The restaurants and food offerings are a big part of the business in terms of the store channel, in terms of getting people in, keeping them in and getting them coming back for more. It helps with our Swedishness as well, being a proud Swedish company.”

In a nod to that Swedishness, Ikea even has a Swedish grocery shop in its stores too, selling everything from Daim bars and European lollies, to gingerbread houses, pre-made frozen meatballs and mash potato to cook at home.

The menu at each Ikea store around the world can be vastly different. Except for the Swedish meatballs (or plant-based or veggie meatball alternatives) on offer, the other menu items depend on the store location.

For example, Ikea Tempe in Sydney has chicken schnitzel, plant-based pie and fish and chips meals on its menu, whereas a store in Sweden would have more salmon-based dishes. Cue the salmon balls.

Prevade says the Auckland Ikea store will sell its famous meatballs but also have a menu local to New Zealand. What exactly those other meals will be have not yet been decided, he says.

“There are local taste [preferences] in every market, so we also need to have something that appeals to the local customers.

“Ikea is built around low prices, it is our identity, and there’s no difference from furnishing through to food. We aim to be the best price out there and offer customers really good quality for a really good price.”

While Ikea strives to make regular A$12-$18 meal sales, the value of those meals is much lower than the average amount spent on its furnishings.

Globally, food sales make up between 5-7% of all sales, and in Australia in the past year Ikea sold 17.8 million plates of food.

“The scale of the operation is quite big. It’s a large scale food business - a business in a business really.”

Interestingly, Ikea stores in Asian countries have a higher share of overall food sales. In some remote cities in Asia, for example, Ikea might be the only western restaurant in the area alongside McDonald’s and KFC.

Ikea Shanghai for example has a 1200-seat restaurant.

Prevade says New Zealand’s Ikea will have meatball and salmon dishes on offer in its restaurant, as well as chips, salads and its famous Diam cake on the dessert front.

Other menu items have not yet been confirmed, but he says these will be different to what’s on offer in Australia. There are lots of contenders on the seafood and fish front, along with a variant of a lamb dish that Prevade and his team are considering.

“They’ll be a pretty big offer there. We’re currently in the process of building relationships with suppliers and working through some development. We hope we can share a final menu sooner rather than later.”

Prevade says Ikea was “anticipating a lot” from its New Zealand food business - namely strong sales, driven by the likes of the tight economic conditions and the impacts of the cost of living crisis. He says the food will be different and more competitive in price to what is available in Mt Wellington currently.

“We’ve been around Sylvia Park - to the restaurants there and around - and we know we’ll have a really affordable proposition.”

Of the 400 people Ikea is looking to hire for the Sylvia Park store, Prevade says he expected up to 15% of those people would be employed to operate the restaurant and food and beverage offerings.

“We expect to be super busy in those first few months, and will no doubt need extra support.”

The serving and overall dining experience will be different to the Tempe and other Ikea stores, Prevade says, and one of the first stores globally to implement and open with a new restaurant concept with a digital ordering system via kiosks and the Ikea app for click-and-collect pick up.

The serving portion of the restaurant will be half cafeteria style - typical to Ikea stores - and half self-serve kiosk with the quick order and collect areas, and the usual clear-your-own trays section.

Behind the scenes of the restaurant and out the back, Ikea Sylvia Park will also operate a “co-worker restaurant” providing meals at a fraction of the cost to its staff, with a changing menu - different to the shop front.

Taste test - verdict on iconic menu items

During my trip to Sydney to interview Ikea executives and learn more about the business and what it would bring to the New Zealand market with its upcoming store launch, I was lucky enough to try some of the fare in Ikea Tempe, here's what I thought:

* The classic meatballs: 8.5/10

A mix of beef and pork, Ikea’s generous helping of meatballs (about eight per plate) went down a treat. While definitely not the best meatballs I have ever tried, they were pretty darn good for the price - A$10, particularly when paired with Ikea’s signature lingonberry jam, mash potato, gravy and peas. Would definitely eat again.

* Cinnamon bun: 4/10

I didn’t have much expectations of the cinnamon bun given I had never tried a traditional Swedish cinnamon bun before, but what I tasted wasn’t that. A hot snack, dense and lacking any bounce of pastry comparable to a cinnamon bun that can be bought in a local cafe. Apart from the cinnamon flavour being pleasant, if blindfolded I wouldn’t have known what I was biting into. Not for me.

* Veggie hot dog: 2/10

Of all the Ikea menu items I tried, this is something I wouldn't try again. Aside from looking unappealing - although more appetising than its anaemic-looking meat counterpart, I opted for the vegetarian option hoping it would be less risky for my pregnant self. Content with the idea it was made with vegetables - that you could see too - the first few bites were fine, but it didn’t take long for the taste to subside and for me to again ponder what it was I was eating. Next time I’d be more inclined to skip the hot snacks in favour of a meal in the restaurant.

* Daim cake: easy 10/10

Light, layered with caramel, and the perfect amount of sweet, the Daim cake is a treat well worth the A$3.50. A good piece of cake warranting no complaints - and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t consider the logistics of buying a full frozen cake from the Swedish food market section to take home for a second helping. A must try on the Ikea food menu.

– Aimee Shaw travelled to Sydney courtesy of Ikea.