November 2 (SeeNews) - The Romanian arm of Sweden's IKEA, the world's largest furniture retailer, has said it plans to invest 80 million euro ($88 million) in a second store in Romania's capital Bucharest and to open three more stores in the country by 2020.
"We are on track with the plan for the opening of the second store, close to obtaining the Zoning Plan from the local authorities - November 8 is the deadline for closing the public debate of this plan - and then we can apply for the building permit and set an opening date. As of today, we estimate that we will open the second store at the end of 2018," Country Retail Manager IKEA South East Europe Stefan Vanoverbeke said in a press release on Tuesday.
By 2020, IKEA plans to open three more stores in Romania - in Timisoara, Brasov and Cluj-Napoca, the company said.
At present, IKEA has one store in Romania, in Bucharest.
“Timisoara, Brasov and Cluj are the next three cities where opening new stores is a priority for IKEA South East Europe. Our property and expansion team is involved in a process of looking for land that can offer the features required for a new store, such as access to means of transport and a good road infrastructure and a location close to the city," Vanoverbeke said.
In the long term, IKEA South East Europe is close to accomplishing its initial plans of opening 13 stores in Croatia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia by 2025, Vanoverbeke said.
"In Romania we see a potential for 9 stores, including the existing one in northern Bucharest,” he added.
IKEA also announced in the press release that its sales in Romania grew by 21.2% year-on-year to 514 million lei ($125.5 million/114 million euro) in financial year 2016 ended August 31, value added tax excluded, mainly due to a surprising increase of online orders.
In its financial year 2016, IKEA Romania processed 103,975 online orders, a jump of over 140% compared to financial year 2015. Most orders came from Bucharest, Cluj, Timisoara, Iasi and Constanta, it said.
IKEA's Romanian store had nearly 3.2 million visitors in the 12 months to August 31, who bought about 17.3 million items, the retailer said.
Furniture items accounted for 79.5% of the total number of sold products, with decorations and accessories making up the remainder, IKEA said.
IKEA's Romanian store was opened in March 2007 under a franchise and became part of the IKEA Group in March 2010. It had 569 employees in the 12 months through August.
IKEA operates more than 330 stores in 40 countries and has close to 154,000 employees worldwide.
(1 euro= 4.5056 Romanian lei)