Works for the new IKEA store, due to open in 2025, are under way. Video / Carson Bluck
NZX-listed Kiwi Property Group is talking to Auckland Transport about managing the opening of New Zealand’s first Ikea store before Christmas and stressing the available links to trains and buses in the area.
At Kiwi’s annual general meeting yesterday, chairman Simon Shakesheff told of behind-the-scenes discussions over potential congestion inMt Wellington.
“We are cognisant of the impacts on traffic in the surrounding area, and Kiwi Property is working closely with Auckland Transport to develop a traffic mitigation plan,” he told shareholders.
Sylvia Park’s connectivity to public transport would be key in mitigating traffic impacts, with the train station, motorway and bus linkages all providing access to the site.
“Ikea is likely to open around the Christmas trading period at the end of this year, and we look forward to the strength of their brand acting as a magnet to the Sylvia Park precinct," Shakesheff said.
In August 2023, Kiwi Property completed the sale to Ikea of 3.2ha of land adjacent to Sylvia Park.
Gone blue: the vast new store as it looked at Mt Wellington in early December 2024 when around a quarter of the exterior had the distinctive colour on. Photo / Ikea
The store is about the same size as three rugby fields and Naylor Love is nearing completion of the build.
“We anticipate great interest in Ikea once it opens, and expect it will drive retail tourism to Sylvia Park,” Shakesheff said.
“Accordingly, we’ve made sure that accessing Sylvia Park shopping centre is as seamless as possible, with pedestrian connectivity progressing well in the form of a covered walkway between the two sites,” the chairman told shareholders.
While some might think that after opening 480 stores, a new one would be as routine as a daily commute, global retail manager Tolga Oncu confessed to the Herald earlier this year he’s “nervous” about the brand’s launch in Aotearoa.
Tolga Oncu, Ikea retail manager. Photo / Ikea
“I would say I am nervous because it’s going to be the first time we meet,” he said from Ikea’s head office in Malmo, Sweden.
“We are going to exchange discussions, dialogues, and we’re going to come there and try to support and improve the everyday life at home.”
Despite Ikea’s more than 80 years of customer interactions, Oncu says there is something special about opening the doors to a new country for the first time.
It originally planned to hire 400 workers but will now expand that to 500 by the time it opens the Sylvia Park store in late 2025.
So far, 66 employees have been employed with more than 15,000 people applying as of May 25.
Ikea’s New Zealand recruitment drive started last year, hiring 20 senior managers, with each position attracting 700 to 800 applications towards the end of 2024, before ramping up operations to hire fulfilment and warehousing staff in January this year.
In April, the business announced it had begun advertising for other roles, including for its showrooms, in its restaurant and in interior design, visual merchandising, display, management and its warehouse.
