November 26 (SeeNews) - Greek retail group Fourlis, which owns the IKEA franchise rights for Greece, Bulgaria and Cyprus, plans to invest over 300 million euro ($452 million) in Bulgaria and to open three IKEA stores in the country, local media reported on Thursday.
The construction of the first IKEA store in Bulgaria, in the capital Sofia, is due to be completed by June 2011, Sofia-based daily Standart (www.standartnews.com) quoted Bulgarian Regional Development Minister Rosen Plevneliev as saying.
He was on the roster of an official delegation that paid a three-day visit to Athens earlier this week.
Earlier this year, Fourlis said its local wholly-owned unit, House Market Bulgaria, had bought a 60,000 square metre site in Sofia.
In addition to the store in Sofia, the Greek IKEA franchisee plans to open an outlet in Bulgaria's Black Sea city of Varna and another one in a location midpoint between Plovdiv and Stara Zagora, in the south of the country.
IKEA furniture components worth over 25 million euro are currently manufactured in Bulgaria on an annual basis and that output value will most probably double after the stores open, Standart quoted Plevneliev as saying.
Fourlis (www.fourlis.com) has said it plans to operate a total of 11 IKEA stores by 2013.
Fourlis also owns the franchise rights for sportswear chain Intersport in Greece, Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria.
($ = 0.6629 euro)