Ikea will study how Kiwis live, including the size of our kitchens and our window dressings. Photo / Getty Images
Ikea will study how Kiwis live, including the size of our kitchens and our window dressings. Photo / Getty Images
What styles of homes do we live in, how many bedrooms do most of us have, how do we cover our windows, how big are our kitchens and how do we live exactly?
These are some of the questions Swedish furnishings and homeware giant Ikea will study before making itsdebut in this country in two years’ time.
“We would plan to do almost a thousand home visits before we enter,” he told the Herald yesterday.
Although Winterbine acknowledged there were more similarities than differences between, say, us and Australians in terms of how we live, the business would curate its new Sylvia Park store to appeal directly to Kiwis, he stressed.
“In New Zealand and specifically Auckland, we do a number of home visits to see how people live, what their living situation is, what their needs are, what sort of solutions would suit them,” said Winterbine, who visited from Australia.
“And so what you see, what will be unique about the store in New Zealand is then how we present the range, that it will be tailored to the New Zealand consumer so that will be unique about New Zealand and this store in Auckland.”
How Ikea is planned to look at Sylvia Park. Photo / Kiwi Property Group
The 34,000sq m three-level store with ground-floor car parking is due to open in late 2025. Locally-owned builder Naylor Love has won the contract to construct the new store.
Winterbine was at a Māori blessing and ground-breaking ceremony this morning, along with Mirja Viinanen, Ikea NZ and Australia chief executive and chief sustainability officer.
The bathroom in a suite at Club Med Québec Charlevoix reflects a kind of whimsical Ikea-style modernism. Photo / Eugen Sakhnenko/The New York Times
Asked if New Zealanders lived differently from others overseas, Winterbind said: “Of course, there’s probably more similarities than differences, I would say. But you know there are unique ways in terms of the size of homes, whether it’s I’ve been planned, how many bedrooms people have. the types of kitchens, the size of kitchens.
“Then when we get into more the details, we look at things like window dressings/ Do you work with blinds and curtains, and so on?”
Ikea was still in the process of understanding how people lived in Auckland, in the smaller area specifically around Sylvia Park but also throughout New Zealand.
Results of the study of nearly 1000 homes would be taken into the new store, he said.
Ikea plans to open a store at Sylia Park in a couple of years' time.
Although Ikea had “more or less” the same product range in its stores all around the world, it was important to know the market so that store ranges were informed by that.
“We work with a very similar, you know, format and concept. But what is unique is the way in which we show our products which will be connected directly to how people live,” he said.
Last year, the Overseas Investment Office granted Ikea consent to buy the site, although that deal is yet to settle. Kiwi Property Group is selling the 3.2ha site at Sylvia Park.
Approval was won under the significant business investment asset category and lawyer Andrew Monteith of Minter Ellison Rudd Watts was named in last year’s decision sheet as acting for Ikea New Zealand.
“The property on which the business is expected to be established is located adjacent to the Sylvia Park Shopping Centre on Carbine Rd and Clemow Drive, Mount Wellington. The property is not sensitive land for the purposes of the Overseas Investment Act,” the OIO said in 2022.
The concept behind Ikea is to show people how their homes can be changed with the products in the stores, so kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms and lounge rooms are all shown, fully furnished.
While the product range and prices are at this stage unknown, if the New Zealand Ikea is anything like in Australia, Kiwis could grab outdoor products like a three-seat sofa for A$465 ($489.21), table with four chairs for A$459 or a charcoal barbecue with cabinet for A$528.
