IKEA Industry Portugal operates the IKEA group’s furniture factory in Paços de Ferreira, the heart of Portugal’s “Capital do Móvel.” It is the fifth-largest plant in IKEA’s global manufacturing network, employing around 1,500 people and exporting roughly 96% of its output.
Inaugurated in 2008, the Paços de Ferreira unit is one of the largest furniture factories in Portugal and the fifth-biggest in IKEA’s worldwide manufacturing system. It runs two production lines — one for kitchen fronts and doors, the other for lighter items such as shelves and benches — and turns out around 15 million finished pieces a year, shipping them to roughly 21 countries and generating in the region of €220 million in annual revenue.
The plant does not stand alone. It sits at the centre of the Paços de Ferreira and Paredes furniture belt, Portugal’s densest concentration of furniture makers, drawing on local labour, logistics and a deep base of component and material suppliers. Around 40% of its output is destined for North America, with the remainder feeding IKEA’s European and Nordic ranges; management has said the unit could lift production by a further 30% within two years using capacity already installed.
IKEA Industry Portugal inverts the usual corridor narrative: rather than Nordic capital simply flowing south, Portuguese manufacturing capacity, craft and forestry flow north into the supply chain of one of Scandinavia’s most globally recognised brands. It is one of the clearest illustrations that a great deal of “Swedish” furniture is, quite literally, made in Portugal.
NorthSouth HQ examined the plant’s role in the corridor in our June 2026 feature on Paços de Ferreira and the IKEA supply chain, including its export profile and the modernisation pressures facing Portugal’s wider furniture cluster.
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