NEWS: IKEA Canada partners with Second Closet and Lion Electric; takes steps towards zero-emission l

IKEA Canada partners with Second Closet and Lion Electric for last mile delivery in Greater Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver markets

IKEA Canada takes bold step towards 100% zero-emission delivery by 2025

Burlington, ON – April 15, 2021 – Today, IKEA Canada announced that it has taken an important first step on the journey to fulfilling its commitment of 100% zero-emission deliveries by 2025. The home furnishing retailer has partnered with technology-enabled logistics and last mile delivery provider, Second Closet, who will begin integrating zero-emission trucks into its fleet for IKEA home deliveries in several markets across Canada. Second Closet has submitted a purchase order to Lion Electric (Lion), a leading manufacturer of all-electric medium and heavy-duty urban vehicles, for 15 Lion6 heavy-duty zero-emission trucks.

The IKEA and Second Closet co-branded five tonne EV trucks that will service last mile deliveries for IKEA locations in Boucherville, QC, Etobicoke, ON, Richmond, BC are scheduled to hit the streets in fall 2021. This will enable IKEA to achieve 20% of its ambitious zero emission delivery goals. The retailer is committed to reaching its 2030 goal to become a circular and climate positive business by reducing more greenhouse gas emissions than the IKEA value chain emits while growing the IKEA business at the same time.

The impacts of the global pandemic are moving consumer purchases online and thereby increasing the demand for home deliveries. It also increases the challenge this poses in terms of pollution, congestion, and noise levels in our cities. In 2020, IKEA Canada completed over 500,000 home deliveries, a 30% increase from 2019.

“Electrifying our last mile delivery service is an important step in our journey to become climate positive by 2030, especially with the rapid acceleration of our online business over the past year,” said Michael Ward, CEO & Chief Sustainability Officer, IKEA Canada. “We are pleased to work with Second Closet and Lion Electric, two great Canadian innovators, to support us in meeting our customers with people and planet in mind.”

IKEA Canada has been named amongst Canada’s greenest employers for more than a decade and remains committed to its leadership in sustainability. Further to its current zero-emission delivery efforts, IKEA Canada has also achieved the unique status of producing four times the energy that the company’s operations and facilities consume, thanks to renewable energy produced by its wind farms and rooftop solar panels. The company widely supports electrification of transportation, providing electric vehicle chargers at all 14 IKEA stores across Canada with a goal of halving relative emissions from employees and customers by 2030.

“A key area of focus for Second Closet is ensuring both the quality and sustainability of our processes. In addition to making this important investment in electric vehicles for our fleet, we have also retrofitted our facilities with highly energy-efficient lighting and have a circular supply chain for our corrugate boxes and other consumable materials,” said Mark Ang, CEO and co-founder of Second Closet. ”We are pleased to be working closely with IKEA Canada and Lion and look forward to seeing these trucks on the road making deliveries.”

“Lion is delighted to have been chosen as a key partner in IKEA Canada’s incredibly ambitious goal of decarbonizing home delivery by 2025. We believe this will be the first deployment of all-electric delivery trucks at scale in Canada, serving as an example for what’s possible with electrified fleets today and setting up IKEA Canada and Second Closet for larger deployments in the near future,” said Marc Bedard, CEO and Founder of Lion.

ABOUT IKEA CANADA
Founded in 1943 in Sweden, IKEA is a leading home furnishing retailer, offering a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible can afford them. IKEA Canada is part of Ingka Group which operates 374 IKEA stores in 30 countries, including 14 in Canada. Last year, IKEA Canada welcomed 22.9 million visitors to its stores and 178.4 million visitors to IKEA.ca and the IKEA app. IKEA Canada operates business through the IKEA vision - to create a better everyday life for the many people and does so through its local community efforts and sustainability initiatives. For more information on IKEA Canada, please visit IKEA.ca.

ABOUT SECOND CLOSET
Second Closet is Canada’s tech-enabled logistics partner for businesses of all sizes – from small e-commerce merchants to large national retailers. Second Closet provides a customer-centric approach to fulfilment, including storage, pick and pack, shipping, and last mile delivery. By operating as an extension of each client’s business, Second Closet delivers a world class experience every step of the way, ensuring faster, more cost-effective, and complete customer deliveries that arrive on time. For more information on why Canada’s largest box mattress companies, furniture businesses, and hundreds of e-commerce entrepreneurs trust Second Closet as their fulfilment partner, visit business.secondcloset.com.

ABOUT LION ELECTRIC
Lion Electric is an innovative manufacturer of zero-emission vehicles. The company creates, designs and manufactures all-electric class 5 to class 8 commercial urban trucks and all-electric buses and minibuses for the school, paratransit and mass transit segments. Lion is a North American leader in electric transportation and designs, builds and assembles all its vehicles’ components, including chassis, battery packs, truck cabins and bus bodies.

Always actively seeking new and reliable technologies, Lion vehicles have unique features that are specifically adapted to its users and their everyday needs. Lion believes that transitioning to all-electric vehicles will lead to major improvements in our society, environment and overall quality of life.