IKEA partners Chinese producer to incorporate electronics into furniture

Swedish furniture producer IKEA will sell incorporated consumer electronics into its furniture from this summer, after a partnership with Chinese TCL Multimedia. Consumers will be offered furniture with televisions, wireless sound systems and built-in CD/DVD/Blu-ray players, designed specifically for IKEA.

"This is a large step for us. We will have an offer that is unique in the market," IKEA's living room chief Magnus Bondesson told Reuters newswire. IKEA will roll out the new products to five European cities by June this year, and to seven European countries during autumn. The full range of new products will be available elsewhere (probably including Romania) by 2013. Prices will start at around 6,500 Swedish krona (some USD 960) for the simplest combination bench unit, television and sound system, according to Tolga Oncu, sales chief at IKEA Sweden IKEA has previously sold appliances developed in co-operation with Whirpool and Electrolux. TCL Multimedia sells TV sets and multimedia electronics under the brands TCL, ROWA, Thomson and RCA. editor@romania-insider.com