Ikea Loulé plans muted opening

Management of the Ikea store opening near Loulé on Thursday 30th March, is planning for two million visitors in the first year of activity. This upbeat prediction comes from the director of the shop, Abdelhak Ayadi.

In a pre-launch meeting with journalists, Ayadi said the retail unit is not one of Ikea’s standard stores, as its product range has been adapted to the local market, especially the resident foreign community.

"To be relevant to foreigners, we have to connect with them, so communications are in Portuguese and English, from the in-store directions to the labels and price tags," said the director, adding that the catalogue and the website also in both languages.

The interior designer of the new store, Marta Cunha, said some products in the Algarve's first Ikea store have been selected to take into account specific local needs, for example the wider than usual variety of garden and patio furniture as 65% of properties in the region have terraces or balconies.

Disappointingly, the 1,600 solar panel area is planned to come on stream in the summer of 2018 to produce 25% of the store’s electricity consumption. Why the site design did not go for 100% self-sufficiency remains an unanswered question, especially as the Swedish company prides itself on its environmental sensitivity.  

A significant dampener for the store opening is the death last week of a woman who was crushed to death in the loading area, the second on-site fatality during the building process. (Click here)

"We decided to cancel or postpone some activities so the opening will not be normal, it will be more sober," said the director of the unit, saying he can’t say much more about the accident as it is still being investigated.

The opening of this fifth Ikea store in Portugal is part of the group's planned expansion. Management expects to double the number of stores in the country to ten, by 2025.

In addition to the flagship IKEA store, the retail park's main shopping centre will open this autumn. MAR Shopping Algarve will have 110 stores, cinemas and foods areas covering 82,000m2.

This zone includes The Designer Outlet Algarve,  a venture between IKEA Centres Portugal and ROS Retail Outlet Shopping.

The Swedish company says that the new area will take the concept of family-friendly shopping to a new level, with the shopping centre being more like a theme park.

Speaking to reporters, Fernando Caldas, director of Ikea Portugal’s expansion, said that the goal is for the group's new stores to be closer to the city centres, with a five new stores planned, to bring the total number of Ikea outlets in Portugal to ten by 2025.

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