The new boss of Ikea Iberia, Tolga Öncü, has announced bold plans to double the number of outlets in Spain within the coming ten years.
"Right now we have 16 stores in Spain and pickup points and by 2025, we hope that there will be double the opportunities to physically buy from Ikea," he told Spanish newspaper Expansión.
Not only good for customers, the expansion will result in a €1 billion investment and create 14,000 jobs (12,500 indirect and 1,500 direct) by 2020.
Spain’s economy has shown significant improvement in the last year, adding to consumer confidence.
Ikea benefitted with sales in Spain of close to €1.3 billion in the past year, with nearly 40 million visits to the stores, a staggering number for a nation of nearly 48 million souls.
Spain has become the eighth largest market for the Swedish company. This follows an investment of €700 million in the country over the last five years which brought about seven new outlets.
When a branch in Valencia opened two years ago, the website crashed under the weight of thousands of job seekers.
Öncü pointed out that Ikea outlets are now within an hour’s drive for 65% of Spain’s inhabitants. He is working towards extending that to 80% in the next ten years.
"There is a more optimistic perception of the future and now Spaniards are doing the kind of shopping that had stopped in recent years," Öncü said. "Spain is a very important market to us and there is a relationship of love between the company and Spain and we see a lot of potential business."
