The world’s number one furniture retailer, Ikea, opened a large-format store on Thursday in a grand manner in the Italie Deux shopping centre in the south of Paris, which was bought by the Swedish group’s property company, and its CEO, Jesper Brodin, said he was open to other locations.
The store of some 6,200 m2 on several floors will replace the smaller one in La Madeleine, in the centre of the capital, after the acquisition announced in April 2023 of the entirety of Italie Deux, an extension and neighbouring offices by the property company Ingka Centres.
Before the official opening at 10:00 a.m., a dense crowd waited in the corridors of the shopping center, whose facade was redesigned in the Swedish colors of the flat-pack furniture specialist, in yellow and blue.
“I’m going to come many times!” said Enrique Nieto, who had been waiting since 8:30 a.m. to be among the first customers. “I really like that Ikea is creating stores in the city center,” accessible “easily on foot” or by metro, he added.
“A big fan of Ikea”, Nathalie Siciliano even took a day off to attend the event.
The opening is part of a €1.2 billion investment plan in France for the period 2023-2026, “a large part” of which is devoted to Italie Deux, in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, Jesper Brodin, CEO of the Ingka group, the holding company that brings together most of Ikea’s stores worldwide, told AFP.
– Furniture to take away –
While Ikea had previously rented premises in the La Madeleine district, “we are rather financially prudent and like to own the premises we occupy,” he explained, not hiding a certain future appetite.
“We are looking to continue opening new sites” in Paris, Brodin said. “I have nothing to announce, but we remain curious to find locations.”
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Larger, more accessible by public transport and by car and equipped with a warehouse that allows it to offer more products to take away directly, Italie Deux “ticks a lot of boxes”, underlined Johan Laurell, president of Ikea France.
Many pieces of furniture will be available immediately, he noted.
The Italie Deux shopping centre “already has more than 10 million visitors a year today and we believe we can be a driving force to bring more people here,” he told AFP.
“I think it restores the image of the whole neighborhood” which has “degraded a little”, said Murielle Taupin, a retiree who came “for the show” and to buy a photo frame.
The majority of the team from the La Madeleine store has moved to the one in the south of Paris, where “the team is slightly larger,” Mr. Laurell explained.
– Price drop –
In addition to the Parisian center, Ikea had notably announced, as part of its investment plan, a new logistics center in Toulouse (south of France), opened this year, and confirmed a similar location in 2026 in Limay (Paris region). The brand has since also opened small design studios.
Jesper Brodin also hopes to launch more widely, particularly in France, an online platform for selling furniture between individuals, which is currently being tested until December in Oslo and Madrid.
Globally, Ingka Group has seen its annual profit increase fivefold by 2023, to €1.5 billion, driven by a growth of around 5% in turnover, to more than €44 billion. And Mr Brodin looks to the future with “optimism”.
Ikea is banking on sustained price cuts to attract customers, with nearly 2,000 products “permanently” discounted by 15%, according to Mr Brodin, which has boosted sales volumes.
He also “hopes” that with the beginning of a drop in interest rates – the high level of which is currently weighing down the real estate market – “economic constraints will be reduced and people will move more”. “And we will be there to serve them”.
ys/ak/abx
