Ex-Galeria locations at a glance
IKEA is moving into the city center
April 14, 2024, 3:34 p.m
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The furnishing giant wants to get even closer to its customers. To do this, the Swedes are testing planning offices with a smaller range in inner-city locations. In view of the high response, the network is to be expanded.
The furniture retailer IKEA wants to open more so-called planning studios in city centers this year. There, customers can get advice on buying kitchens, for example. “Cologne and Stuttgart are expected to start this year,” said IKEA Germany boss Walter Kadnar to “Bild am Sonntag”. The company is moving into shopping centers in both cities. Kadnar did not rule out the possibility that space in abandoned Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof department stores could also be considered in the future. The new Galeria owners want to continue operating more than 70 of the 92 branches.
Ikea planning studios already exist in Berlin, Munich and Ravensburg. The furniture retailer has part of its range available there so that customers can try it out and be inspired. Kadnar recently confirmed that it wanted to open more locations when it presented its balance sheet in the fall. They have been testing “smaller formats for about three years,” Kadnar told the newspaper. “We were so successful that we are now continuing in this direction. To put it bluntly: We want such planning studios all over Germany.”
IKEA is Germany’s largest furniture retailer and employs almost 19,500 people. In the last financial year 2022/2023 (until the end of August), IKEA Germany left the sales losses caused by the corona pandemic behind it. According to the company, revenue grew by 13.3 percent to a good 6.4 billion euros. However, the record of around 97 million visitors from before the pandemic was missed. In total, almost 82 million people flocked to the branches – an increase of around eleven percent. According to its own information, IKEA operates 54 large furniture stores in this country.