IKEA gears up for expansion

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 1/18/2002 12:00:00 AM

Plymouth Meeting, PA — IKEA, the Swedish retailer with 163 locations in 30 countries, including 15 stores in the U.S. and eight in Canada, is gearing up to more rapidly expand its presence here in North America.

Though one or two store openings per year has been typical for IKEA up to now, said Clive Cashman, spokesperson, IKEA will become more aggressive beginning next year, with plans to open five stores a year for 10 years in North America. The retailer is also searching for an ad agency that will help it in this direction.

The proposed sites for new locations in 2003 are College Park, MD; East Palo Alto, CA; Paramus, NY; and Montreal. In addition, three stores are relocations within their local markets: Philadelphia (a relocation of the Plymouth Meeting, PA, store); Costa Mesa, CA (a relocation of the Tustin, CA, store); and Covina, CA (a relocation of the City of Industry, CA, store).

In addition, two more distribution centers will open this year to support this growth, for a total of four in the U.S. — one in Tejon Ranch, CA, this month, and another in Perryville, MD, this summer or fall.