Ikea plans Denver store
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, September 15, 2008
CENTENNIAL, Colo. — Swedish home furnishings giant Ikea is coming to Denver.
The Top 100 company said last week 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 is under contract to buy the land and applied to the city last week to begin the government approval process.
Ikea's nearest stores to Denver are in Draper, Utah, in the Salt Lake City market about 500 miles away and in Tempe, Ariz., in the Phoenix area, about 700 miles away.
“We currently have more than 75,000 customers already in Colorado,” said Joseph Roth, director of public affairs. Some have shopped at the Draper store and others are shopping online or at other stores.
He said the store will be “a great super-regional draw,” serving not only the greater Denver market and Colorado but other metro areas in neighboring states in the Rocky Mountain region.
The closest distribution center serving the store will be one set to be built in Joliet, Ill. But the store also will be a little larger than most, with the added space used for warehousing.
Conshohocken, Pa,-based Ikea North America has been in an 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.
Like other Ikeas, the Denver-area store would feature nearly 10,000 items, 50 room settings, three model home interiors, a supervised children's play area, a large restaurant serving American and Swedish dishes, and 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 was estimated at $2.9 billion.
In Stockholm last week, the Swedish business newspaper Dagens Industri 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).
According to a Reuters report on the story, CEO Anders Dahlvig said that 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.”
Ikea coming to Denver area
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