Belgian Stefan Vanoverbeke was appointed the new retail manager of IKEA South East Europe, the region which includes Romania, Croatia, Serbia, and Slovenia, starting September 1, 2015.

He also took over as manager of IKEA Romania starting October 1, replacing Romanian Cornel Oprisan, who has managed IKEA’s local operations in the last eight years. He was the group’s first employee in Romania, in 2005, and oversaw the opening of the first IKEA store in Bucharest, back in 2007. Under his management, IKEA’s sales in Romania went up each year, reaching EUR 88 million in 2014.

Oprisan decided to leave Romania and take on a new challenge within the Swedish group. He will lead a global research project implemented by Inter IKEA Systems: Multi-channel transformation, within the Business and Customer Intelligence division, Customer Insight Platform.

Stefan Vanoverbeke will lead the retail operations in Romania, Croatia, Serbia, and Slovenia, and will get directly involved in the company’s expansion plans while working closely with the existing management team. IKEA’s expansion plans in the region include opening a new store in Bucharest. The group already bought the land for the new development, in eastern Bucharest.

Prior to taking this position, Vanoverbeke was the CEO of IKEA France. He joined IKEA 15 years ago and made his way up in the group from national sales manager at IKEA Belgium, to store manager in Italy, and CEO of IKEA Poland, a position he held for 4 years (2005 to 2009).

He graduated from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, and has a degree in Civil Engineering and a Master's Degree in Social Sciences from the same university.

IKEA’s local store, opened in 2007, was the company’s 253rd unit worldwide. Located in northern Bucharest, the store was initially operated under franchise. Later on, it became part of the IKEA Group, which started operating it directly.

In mid-June this year, the retailer announced the location for a second store in Romania. 

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com