Ikea to give New Zealand opening 'update in coming months'

After years of speculation, it's finally been confirmed: Swedish furniture store Ikea is opening in New Zealand.

Swedish furniture and homeware giant Ikea will soon say more about its New Zealand plans, after announcing two years ago its first store would be in Auckland.

Ikea was being tipped by other media today to open in New Zealand in the next four months but the business has not been specific about an exact opening date or when it will say more.

"Despite the challenging environment in which we have been operating within the last 18 months, we are not deterred and are still very much working on bringing the Ikea experience to the whole of New Zealand," the company said this evening.

"We're looking forward to sharing an update in the coming months."

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Last February, Ikea said it would open in this country "with multiple physical and digital customer touchpoints providing access to people across the entire country".

In 2019, Ingka Group announced that it would open its first store in the Auckland area, following Ikea Systems B.V. granting franchise rights.

"While exact locations are currently not confirmed and timings are being finalised, there are plans to open three customer meeting points during the launch period," it said.

Inside Ikea. Photo / Babiche Martens

These include a full-sized Ikea store in the greater Auckland area where people can access the entire Ikea range and have the complete shopping experience, a planning studio in Wellington and a second smaller-format store in Christchurch.

Ikea will also launch its full e-commerce offer during this period

Jan Gardberg, country retail manager for Ikea New Zealand, said, "We are looking forward to opening Ikea in New Zealand with access for people across the entire nation. Ikea is a leader in home furnishings around the world and we want to partner with the many New Zealanders to provide inspiration and affordable home furnishing solutions to create a better every-day life at home."

Planning had been under way, so the business had been getting to know more about life at home in New Zealand.

"Each year Ikea conducts life-at-home research, the largest, most comprehensive and longest-running global investigation into topics relating to peoples' life at home.

"In 2018 IKEA added New Zealand to this study. The global research found that privacy is one of the most important needs for creating the feeling of home.

"It also found that in New Zealand, 65 per cent of people say privacy is important to achieve time and space for activities that enable personal growth; and 74 per cent agree that privacy is important to our wellbeing, however, interestingly 11 per cent of people in New Zealand don't feel they have a right to ask for privacy at home.," Gardberg said last year.

Last February, it said it would share more about its plans for this country "in the coming months" but the business has said nothing more till now, 16 months later.