Daily Mail, Saturday, June 18, 2005
The Swedish company known for vast out-of-town warehouses wants to expand its flatpack furniture empire into the centre of towns and cities.
Tough planning regulations mean Ikea has found it harder to win permission to build new superstores alongside motorways or in giant retail parks.
Yesterday it unveiled plans for ten smaller stores to add to the 13 warehouses it already has across Britain.
The first is a six-storey store in West London - next to Hillingdon Tube station alongside the A40.
At 250,000 square feet, it would have around a quarter of the floorspace of the usual Ikea warehouse.
The store and 1,200-space car park would be integrated into a development of 240 flats.
By combining the development with housing, some of it 'affordable', Ikea hopes for a better response from planners. It would also give the company an instant customer base on the doorstep. The application will be submitted next week.
The new approach follows Ikea's growing problems winning planning permission for its stores.
In February, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott rejected an application for a £30million store near Stockport, Manchester.
The company has also been looking in vain for a site on the South Coast for four years.
Ikea's ability to attract a crowd was graphically illustrated at the opening of its Edmonton store in North London in February. Lured by offers including leather sofas for £45, around 6,000 customers - three times as many as predicted - stormed the building when it opened at midnight.
Several were injured or suffered heat exhaustion in the crush. Those who made it inside reported punch-ups and running battles to get their hands on the furniture.
The store had to close while the emergency services brought the situation under control.
The Hillingdon plan is the start of a push into town and city centres, although few places will be able to accommodate the floorspace the company is likely to want.
Ikea hopes to apply to build a second smaller store close to a transport hub by the end of the year with ten trading by 2015. 'In many ways, Ikea have been victims of their own success,' said Andrea Cockram from retail analysts Verdict Retail Research.
'They have been effectively pushed into this step because of the difficulty they have had building more of their traditional stores.'
Ikea, which already trades in 32 countries, this week announced its first Japanese store.
It has already ventured into Britain's High Street, acquiring the Habitat chain in 1992.
Since the company was founded in Sweden in 1943 by 17-year-old Ingvar Kamprad, it has grown from a village-based mail-order business to a multinational empire with turnover of nearly £9billion a year.
Its Scandinavian minimalism was a hit when it opened its first British store in Warrington, Cheshire in 1987.
Ikea is Britain's fourth biggest furniture retailer despite having relatively few branches.
It is planning to start selling homes instead of simply homewares. Its 'flatpack homes', aimed at first-time buyers, will cost around £70,000.
Now 79, Mr Kamprad's fortune is thought to be more than £10billion, making him one of the world's wealthiest men.
j.tozer@dailymail.co.uk