IKEA, a Swedish firm that imports home textiles and home furnishing items from Bangladesh, plans to expand its operations here. Photo: IKEA

A multinational Swedish firm engaged in outsourcing home textiles and home furnishing items is planning to expand its operations in Bangladesh.

As part of its plan, IKEA has targeted to buy handmade and machine-made cotton rugs, machine tufted rugs, PP (Polypropylene) plastic items and natural fibre products, said an official of the company in Dhaka.

The company is currently sourcing mainly textiles furnishings and ceramic articles from Bangladesh, said Edward Mokronosov, business development manager of IKEA Trading (Hong Kong) Ltd, Bangladesh liaison office.

Mokronosov said the country is traditionally strong in textile sector.

"Bangladesh is a very important market for IKEA and the plan is to treble our purchase volume in the next few years," he said.

The company will engage more suppliers and introduce new materials besides textiles, he added.

Mokronosov said IKEA believes that good working and social conditions, coupled with measures taken for the protection of the outside environment at the IKEA's suppliers, are the prerequisites for doing good business.

"Our code of conduct covers working and social conditions, and the environment," he said, adding that a team of internal auditors and experts works closely with the suppliers.

About designs he said products are mostly developed by IKEA product developers and designers based in Sweden.

While formally opening its office in Dhaka in November, IKEA announced that it aims to buy home textiles worth 300 million euros from Bangladesh within next few years.

At present, IKEA purchases home textiles worth 100 million euros a year from the country.

IKEA started purchasing home textiles from Bangladesh in 1997 and in 2000 the company started activities with a small workstation in Dhaka.

Besides textiles, IKEA also sources carpets and ceramics. Sixteen co-workers are employed in the Bangladesh office, the company official said.

There are a total of 253 stores of IKEA in 24 countries and last year 565 million people visited the IKEA stores worldwide, while the turnover of the company in 2007 was 21.2 billion euros, the official said.

The top three markets in terms of sales of the IKEA products are Germany (15 percent), the USA (10 percent) and France (10 percent).

reefat@thedailystar.net