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Swedish furniture giant IKEA on Thursday opened a new store in the heart of London’s shopping district, with a flurry of balloons, flags — and giant meatballs.<\/p>\n
The Oxford Street outlet has been seven years in the making and is part of the retailer’s strategy of bringing the global brand closer to city centres.<\/p>\n
Tolga Oncu, retail manager at Ingka Group, the holding company which controls most of IKEA’s stores, said they were encouraged by the “urban formats”.<\/p>\n
Others already exist in places such as Paris, Stockholm, Vienna and Tokyo.<\/p>\n
“We know the fact that when we are physically present, not only our physical retail improves but also our digital retail improves,” said Oncu.<\/p>\n
The 4,600-square-metre (nearly 50,000 square-feet) store is housed in the former Topshop building, which the company bought in 2021 for \u00a3378 million ($503 million).<\/p>\n
Hundreds of people thronged the aisles on Thursday to deafening music by a DJ, with attendance boosted by unusually summery temperatures in the British capital.<\/p>\n
Some shoppers held Swedish and UK flags as they posed for photos with a giant meatball, as others browsed the store, which it is hoped will help regenerate Oxford Street after the closure of several big-name outlets.<\/p>\n
With total sales of 45 billion euros ($51 billion), Ikea, founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad, is keeping its focus on physical stores despite the boom in online shopping.<\/p>\n