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global eyes
In the city...
214 Oxford Street will be home to IKEA’s second inner city London store.
BACK IN 1977, pop group The Jam’s iconic song In the City talked about “a thousand faces, all shining bright”, they’re all under 25 and they’re “talking about the new young idea”.
Fast forward now to 2021 and although UK high streets have become something of a wasteland, inner city retailing is
now very des res with many high-
profile brands looking for new ways and locations where they can cater to the children of the boomers who bought In the City the first time around.
IKEA in the heart of the city – One brand much beloved of these boomers is IKEA.
Well known for trying out a range of new retail concepts in recent years, IKEA
has again been shaking retail’s tree with the acquisition of a high profile central London site.
The site in question is about as high profile as you can get, Ingka Investments having paid GB£378 million for a former Top Shop flagship site to house the global homemakers’ IKEA brand slap bang in the centre of the UK capital’s busiest central city shopping area.
Dwarfing its other studio-style city- centred stores, the building at 214 Oxford Street, right beside Oxford Circus, totals 22,200m2 over seven floors, six of which are retail space.
Estimated to open in autumn 2023, part of this retail space will be used by IKEA UK & Ireland to host IKEA UK’s second smaller format store focused on
home-furnishing accessories, following the opening of IKEA Hammersmith later this year.
The new Oxford Street IKEA will share the building with current long-term tenants NikeTown and VANS.
Peter Jelkeby, Country Retail Manager and Chief Sustainability Officer of IKEA UK & Ireland, says of the retailer’s response to the changing consumer: “Today we are seeing societal changes that have evolved customer behaviours and the retail industry as a whole.
“Big global movements in technology, demographics, urbanisation and environmental awareness have caused significant waves of change in the way we live and shop.
“Even though online shopping continues to accelerate at a rapid pace, our physical stores (large and small!), will always be an essential part of the IKEA experience – as places for inspiration and expertise, community and engagement.
“Bringing IKEA to the heart of Oxford Street – one of the most innovative, dynamic and exciting retail destinations in the world – is a direct response to these societal shifts and an exciting step forward in our journey to becoming a more accessible IKEA”, he says.
Clearly some of the motivation for
this move is as much about real estate
as retailing. Indeed, Krister Mattsson, Managing Director of Ingka Investments, says: “This property offers great potential for retail space, and we firmly believe
in the long-term value of the real estate
Tesco’s new GetGo cashless format in High Holborn, London.
50 NZHJ | NOVEMBER 2021
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