SWEDISH FURNITURE GIANT Ikea is exploring the option of opening a new south Dublin store – but the flat-pack outfit hasn’t committed to a second Irish outlet just yet.
Ikea’s Irish wing met with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown council CEO Philomena Poole and director of planning Mary Henchy in October to discuss “the principle of Ikea developing a store” in the area.
According to the lobbying register, the intended result of the meeting was to “understand fully the policy context for such a development and what the substantive issues from a planning perspective would be”.
Ikea previously engaged with Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council when it sought to amend a masterplan for the Cherrywood town development so it could open a 35,000 sq m “flagship” store in the area. The proposal was blocked by An Bord Pleanála in 2014.
A spokeswoman for the council told Fora that officials met with Ikea last year to discuss the company’s trading situation in Ireland, its order-and-collect outlet in Carrickmines and “the fact that they are exploring the option of a site in south Dublin”.
“They stated that they have no specific site that they were in a position to discuss with (Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council),” the spokeswoman said, but added that Ikea was made aware at the meeting that it’s “welcome to enter pre-planning with us” once it has a specific proposal.
Ikea’s spokeswoman said the company is “always looking for opportunities and are investigating the potential for a second store in the market, specifically in Cork”.
However, we have no confirmed plans for the development of an Ikea store at the moment.
Irish operation
It was previously reported by the Irish Examiner that the company had picked Carrigtwohill in east Cork as the location for its second retail store in the Republic.
Ikea’s Ballymun store has been up and running since 2009 while a much smaller order-and-collect outlet opened in late 2016.
The company declared sales of more than €167 million in the 12 months to the end of August 2017, a 10% increase on 2016′s tally. It was sitting on accumulated profits of €27.3 million by the end of August 2016.
Written by Conor McMahon and posted on Fora.ie
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