IKEA is set to open three small stores in Chester, Harlow and Norwich this year as part of the retailer’s expansion plan to be closer to where customers live, work, socialise and do their daily or weekly shopping.
The new IKEA stores will open on former Homebase sites in the Greyhound Retail Park in Chester, Harlow Retail Park in Harlow, and Hall Road Retail Park in Norwich, with the retailer aiming to open doors in all three locations in 2025.
Featuring IKEA’s famous home furnishing inspiration, market hall and bespoke planning services, each store will provide the classic IKEA experience that customers know and love, on a smaller scale. IKEA will offer a compact on-the-go food menu for customers to take away – where fans can still expect IKEA’s much-loved meatballs.
Peter Jelkeby, IKEA UK and Ireland CEO, said: “We know many people want to shop with IKEA but in some instances we are just too far away. That’s why we are strategically expanding our UK footprint, with the aim of showing up in convenient, accessible locations for our customers. Centrally located in retail parks, our three new stores mark a major step forward in our expansion plan, making it easier than ever for customers in these areas to shop with us.”
In these stores customers will be able to follow familiar signage around the store. A curated range of up to 5,000 product lines will be on display, with up to 3,000 available for immediate purchase and the full range discoverable through digital tools. Each store will offer customers complimentary, personalised design support, empowering them to create the spaces of their dreams, as well as click and collect services, allowing customers to pick up online orders at a convenient time for them.
Located in busy retail parks, the stores are the latest in a series of smaller formats that IKEA is opening in the UK. The three new locations are announced ahead of the opening of IKEA’s highly anticipated store on London’s iconic Oxford Street this spring, with the retailer set to open another city centre store in Brighton this year.
Peter Jelkeby added: “Harlow, Chester and Norwich have long been areas of interest to us, and we’re looking forward to bringing the very best of the IKEA experience in a refreshingly compact format to these communities later this year.”
The opening dates for the new IKEA stores in Harlow, Chester and Norwich will be announced in due course. They will join IKEA’s existing portfolio of 21 full IKEA stores in the UK.
