Ikea seeks its balance in Paris. On Tuesday April 4, the Swedish kit furniture giant announced that it was going to close its store in Place de la Madeleine (8e arrondissement), its first location in the capital, dating from 2019, to open another, mid-2024, in the Italie Deux shopping center (13e district), frequented by 10 million visitors a year. It will also transfer employment there – 208 people.
With this project, “we will have a left bank store and a right bank store, supplemented by a 750 square meter design workshop on avenue Daumesnil dedicated to complex purchases such as kitchens, bathrooms or dressing rooms, which will open on April 13”, said Emma Recco, director of strategy and development of Ikea France. In June 2021, Ikea had indeed opened a 2,900 square meter store on rue de Rivoli, focused on decorative accessories.
This decision follows the announcement, on Monday 3 April, of the acquisition of the Italie Deux shopping center, its recent extension ItaliK and the neighboring Apollo office complex (over more than 85,000 square meters), by Ingka Centres, the real estate company that manages real estate within the Ingka group (which also brings together Ikea Retail and Ingka Investments). It owns around fifty shopping centers and commercial areas around the world (China, United Kingdom, Portugal, Finland, etc.).
Save substantial rent
The amount of the deal was not disclosed, but UK-listed property company Hammerson said it sold “its 25% stake in Italie Deux, a 62,000 square meter shopping center, and 100% of the 6,500 square meter Italik extension (…) for 164 million euros”.
The closure of the store in the Place de la Madeleine, frequented by 2.2 million people, will save substantial rent in a chic area, on which the company does not wish to communicate. And will correspond to the strategy of the group, which prefers to own the stores it operates. “Rue de Rivoli, we had bought the building”points out M.me Recco.
Ikea also highlights the fact of having a larger sales area – around 5,800 square meters against 5,200 square meters at the Madeleine -, “in a dense neighborhood, with excellent accessibility” by public transport and by car. This will allow him to have a greater number of products than the “5,000 products on display, including 2,600 to take away immediately” de la Madeleine out of the 10,000 in its catalogue. More choice but also more logistics space “for storing and for selling, including furniture”says M.meRecco. Last advantage, a simplification of access for deliveries. “At the Madeleine, trucks are unloaded in the street”she points out.
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