Swedish furniture retailer IKEA plans to open its second store in Romania by the beginning of the summer.

The retailer will also open new “collection points”, places where customers can place and collect orders, in Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, and Constanta this year.

"Last year, we opened IKEA's first collection points in Brasov and Timisoara, and this year we plan to open collection points in Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Constanta. We will also look for other cities," Stefan Vanoverbeke, CEO of IKEA SEE, told local Profit.ro.

IKEA opened its first store in Romania, the one in Baneasa, in Northern Bucharest, on March 21, 2007. Work on the second IKEA store, also located in Bucharest, on Theodor Pallady Boulevard, has been completed for some time, but IKEA has postponed the opening, initially scheduled for last summer. The store was built by local contractor Bog’Art and is listed as the retailer's largest in South East Europe (SEE).

The total investment in the second store is EUR 86 million. The amount also includes the price for the 13.7 hectares of land acquired in 2014 from investment fund Broadhurst Investments. The price paid for the land amounts to about EUR 19 million.

Regarding the opening of smaller stores in other cities in Romania, the IKEA CEO confirmed that this strategy would be taken into account in the future.

editor@romania-insider.com

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