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Ikea coming to Denver area

Centennial store will be retailer's first in Colorado

Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, September 10, 2008

CENTENNIAL, Colo. - Swedish home furnishings giant Ikea is coming to Denver.

The Top 100 company said today it plans to build a 400,000-square-foot store in Centennial, Colo., a southern suburb of Denver. The store, on 13.5 acres along Interstate 25 in the Park Meadows area, would be the retailer's first in Colorado.

The opening date has not been announced. Ikea said it submitted an application to the city beginning a governmental approval process.

Ikea's nearest stores to Denver are in Draper, Utah, in the Salt Lake City market and in Tempe, Ariz., in the Phoenix area.

"We are thrilled to submit plans for Ikea Centennial, where we can build upon our western U.S. presence," said Doug Greenholz, U.S. real estate manager for the company. He added the proposed store would bring existing Colorado customers a store of their own and introduce others to "the unique Ikea product selection and family-friendly shopping experience."

Conshohocken, Pa,-based Ikea North America has been in aggressive expansion mode for several years. It opened four U.S. stores in its fiscal year ended Aug. 31 - for a total of 35 in the country - in Sunrise and Orlando, Fla.; West Chester, Ohio, and Brooklyn, N.Y. Other stores will open next year in Charlotte, N.C., and Tampa, Fla., and in 2010 in Somerville, Mass.

The Denver-area store would be like other typical Ikeas in featuring nearly 10,000 items, 50 room settings, three model home interiors, a supervised children's play area and a large restaurant serving American dishes and Swedish specialties. The property would include parking for 1,700 vehicles.

The promotional to midpriced Ikea is No. 2 on Furniture/Today's Top 100 with estimated U.S. furniture, bedding and accessories sales of $1.79 billion in its fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2007. Total revenue for the U.S. stores were estimated at $2.9 billion.

In Stockholm this week, a Swedish business newspaper quoted Ikea's top executive as saying that the company's worldwide sales rose 7% in its latest fiscal year ended Aug. 31, to 21.2 billion euros ($30 billion).

CEO Anders Dahlvig said that because of the global business slowdown, sales growth was half what it was in the previous fiscal year. He added, "The business cycle is particularly weak in several of our biggest markets, like Germany, the United States and England."

Click here to read a Reuters report on his comments, originally published in the Swedish daily Dagens Industri.

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Ikea plans Denver store

Sep 14, 2008

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