Since December 2022, IKEA has been delivering to its Parisian customers by boat and electric vehicles. Prepared at the distribution centre at the port of Gennevilliers (92), orders are transported in specially adapted containers by boat to the port of Bercy (Paris 12th arrondissement) and are then loaded onto electric vehicles to cover ‘the last kilometre’ to their recipients. This new, innovative and unprecedented multimodal logistics system aims to reduce the environmental impact of home deliveries and enhance customer satisfaction.

Against a backdrop of rising online sales and the growing popularity of e-commerce, IKEA France is developing a new delivery system for its customers within central Paris¹. Using the innovative mobile container technology developed by Box2Home, a subsidiary of Warning+, the retailer has set up a multimodal home delivery system combining river transport and electric vehicles. Ultimately, an average of 455 orders per day – equivalent to 35 mobile containers – will be transported via the River Seine.

This new transport route enables IKEA to take a further step towards its goal of reducing the environmental footprint of its operations. River freight emits up to five times less CO₂ than road freight per tonne
transported². It reduces the number of kilometres travelled by lorry between the Gennevilliers depot and Paris (saving around 300,000 kilometres per year). Finally, IKEA will deliver to all its Parisian customers using electric lorries for the last kilometre.

Using the River Seine enables IKEA to avoid urban congestion on the approach to Paris and thus ensure delivery times. The entire IKEA range can be delivered using this solution.³

The Île-de-France Region is providing financial support for this project, as part of its Regional Strategy for Freight and Logistics, through its contribution to the Modal Shift Support Scheme (PARM) run by Voies navigables de France (VNF)4 and by supporting the development of the solution and the Box2home multimodal container.

In the future, this river link is set to be operated from the IKEA Customer Distribution Centre at the port of Limay (78), which is due to open in 2026.

“We are proud to be innovating with our partners to launch deliveries to our Parisian customers via the Seine! IKEA France is a pioneer in this field; this is a world first for the IKEA Group. Thanks to this innovation, which relies on Box2Home’s swap bodies, we are taking an important step towards supporting the growth of home deliveries whilst reducing the environmental impact of our operations. I would like to thank the City of Paris, HAROPA PORT, the Île-de-France region and Voies navigables de France for their assistance and support,” said Emma RECCO, Director of Strategy and Business Development at IKEA France.

“We welcome this new home delivery service by water launched by IKEA. This innovation is the result of a long-standing partnership between HAROPA PORT and IKEA France, which already bore fruit in 2019 with thethe establishment of a customer distribution centre in a warehouse at the Port of Gennevilliers and, in 2021, by the decision to build a second warehouse at the Port of Limay-Procheville. Our main ports in the Île-de-France region – Gennevilliers, Bonneuil-sur-Marne and Limay – enable low-carbon supply chains via river transport, bringing goods as close as possible to where they are needed, for all types of freight. “With 20 million tonnes loaded annually at our ports in the Île-de-France region, this avoids nearly 1 million heavy goods vehicle journeys every year, whilst improving the reliability of deliveries,” emphasises Antoine BERBAIN, Deputy Managing Director of HAROPA PORT | Paris.

“Paris was built thanks to and around the River Seine. At the heart of the city, the river enables us to implement a low-emission, low-noise transport system that replaces dozens of lorries,” says Pierre RABADAN, Deputy Mayor of Paris responsible for sport, the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the Seine. “Developing river transport is therefore not an option but a necessity for the City of Paris, and we will support every project that moves in this direction. This project for river-based deliveries followed by electric vehicles, developed by IKEA France, is a perfect example of what we wish to support and develop in the future. An innovation which, I hope, will inspire many other businesses.”

Source: IKEA – HAROPA PORT press release, 14 December 2022.