Ikea cooks up strong sales with popular kitchens

Stockholm: Swedish furniture giant Ikea posted a 7.1 percent jump in sales to 34.2 billion euros ($38.3 billion) in the past year thanks to strong sales of kitchens and dining rooms, it said Tuesday.

"Our focus on kitchens, kitchen equipment and dining rooms has proven very popular with customers and contributed to the strong result in the past year," IKEA Group chief executive Peter Agnefjall said in a statement.

Ikea`s fiscal year runs from September to August. In the previous year, sales rose by 11.2 percent.

Ikea Group, which is not listed and which manages most of the company`s stores, is expected to release its full earnings report before the end of the year.

The 340 Ikea stores, including the 12 which opened this year, registered more than 780 million visitors between September 2015 and August 2016.

Germany remains the group`s biggest market, just ahead of the United States. China, Australia, Canada and Poland are its fastest growing markets, the group said.

Ikea Group plans to open its first stores in India and Serbia in the coming years, it said.