August 10 (SeeNews) - Swedish home furnishings retailer IKEA has opened a store in Belgrade, its first one in Serbia, the country's government said on Thursday.
IKEA has invested 70 million euro ($82 million) in the store which currently employs 416, the Serbian government said in a statement.
The Swedish company has acquired 31 hectares of land adjacent to the store, as it plans to invest an additional 60 million euro into expansion of the store and open 400 new jobs, the government said.
IKEA expects its store in Belgrade to attract 2.5 million visitors annually, IKEA development director for Southeastern Europe (SEE), Vladislav Lalic, said in a separate statement issued by the Belgrade city government on Thursday.
The store of IKEA in Belgrade spreads on an area of 33,000 sq m and offers some 9,500 products. The store also has a restaurant with 500 seats, a bistro, a shop for Swedish food, playgrounds for children and a parking lot for 1,400 vehicles, the Belgrade city government said.
In May, Lalic said the company was also looking for a plot of land on the left bank of the Sava river, in the northwestern part of the Serbian capital.
IKEA's long-term plans include the opening of a store in the city of Nis, but this depends on the development of the Serbian market and the economy in general, Lalic said at the time.
Elsewhere in SEE, IKEA is present in Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria.
($ = 0.853318 euro)