This morning, Ikea has opened its first store in New Zealand. The Auckland store makes Aotearoa the 64th market for the Swedish chain, and also the most remote market from its Swedish headquarters.
Important milestone
The store opened this morning in the Sylvia Park shopping centre in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city. Ikea’s 505th store covers an area of 34,000 sqm and has created 500 jobs. In addition to offering around 7,500 products, customers will also find a Swedish restaurant in the store. At the same time, the chain is opening 29 pick-up points across the country and rolling out home delivery.
Market Manager Johanna Cederlöf calls the opening “a dream come true” and hopes that the Big Blue Box will become a “second home” for Aucklanders. Retail Manager Tolga Öncü spoke of a “leap of faith” (never before has the chain entered a new market with a nationwide network of pick-up points and home delivery at the same time as the first store opening), but also of a “friendship, showing we’re not just exporting a store, we’re planting roots for the long term”.
The move to New Zealand was already announced in 2019 and comes no less than fifty years after the opening in neighbouring Australia. That country is now dethroned as the Ikea market furthest from Sweden. Expansion into new markets is becoming a rarity for Ikea: the last one was four years ago. In 2021, the chain opened its first store in Slovenia.
