Swedish home furnishings retailer IKEA has confirmed plans to open its first store in New Zealand.
Construction has begun on the first ever IKEA store in Aotearoa New Zealand, which will be located at Sylvia Park, Auckland, and is anticipated to open in late 2025.
IKEA also confirmed that alongside the opening, online shopping will be made available too. The expansion into New Zealand ties into Ingka Group’s continued focus on omnichannel growth across the world.
In Spain the company is investing EUR 150 million in opening many new locations around the country by 2025. It is expanding substantially in the UK and London while in Austria, in just three years, it has increased the number of stores and planning studios from eight to 45.
The new 365,000sqft store will be a three-floor building, with a ground level carpark and the store spread across two levels. Sustainable features of IKEA New Zealand’s first store will include solar panels on the roof, electric vehicle chargers in the car park and 100% LED lighting.
Tolga Öncü, Head of IKEA Retail, Ingka Group, commented: “New Zealand felt like a missing piece for IKEA and I am so pleased that, thanks to the support of the many involved, we are now able to start changing that. We are humbled by the interest shown in IKEA and our home furnishing solutions and will do our absolute best to live up to such expectations. I wish everyone a smooth and speedy construction and look very much forward to welcoming New Zealand to the big IKEA family as soon as possible.”
Mirja Viinanen, CEO and Chief Sustainability Officer for IKEA New Zealand and Australia, said: “We know anticipation has been building since we first announced our intention to come to New Zealand, so we are excited to share our plans today as we take an important step closer to saying ‘hej!’ to the many New Zealanders. We’re so grateful to the iwi who helped welcome us to the land, in addition to Kiwi Property, our partners who have enabled construction to begin as we look towards our anticipated opening date of late 2025.”
