The IKEA store at the vast MAR Shopping Algarve retail development at Valados near Loulé is scheduled to open in the spring of 2017
IKEA Portugal has stuck to its current focus on renewable energy - investing €1 million on a photovoltaic panel system to generate electricity - and that it soon will be recruiting in preparation for the opening next year.
Peter Agnefjäll, CEO of the privately-owned Swedish IKEA Group said overall the IKEA Group had another year of good results and saw 783 million visitors visit group stores spending €34 billion, including online sales.
China has remained the fastest growing market, then with Australia, Canada and Poland with new markets being served by pilot stores in India and Serbia next year, adding to the current 340 outlets in 28 countries.
As for the Algarve, IKEA plans to hire 250 workers for its new store situated on the northern boundary of the Via do Infante motorway at the Faro airport exit.
The Loulé project was to create over 3,000 direct and indirect jobs, to the distress of local traders whose business associations mounted a determined effort to have the retail development banned.
The new Algarve store is part of an expansion plan to have a total of ten stores in Portugal, one store per million people. A further store in Braga is scheduled to open in March 2017.
The following link takes you to a corporate video for the new shopping centre:
http://www.empregoportugal.net/mar-shopping-algarve-abre-na-primavera-2017/
