Ikea: This could be the spot of Ikea's pop-up store in Auckland

Friday, 11 January 2019

Ikea NZ marketing manager Will Edward, left, and IKEA global CEO Jesper Brodin on their plans for Ikea's first NZ store.

While Ikea tries to pin down the location for its Auckland megastore, it will be opening a pop-up shop to feed Kiwis' insatiable demand for the Swedish flat-pack furniture retailer in the meantime.

On Friday Ikea's global chief executive Jesper Brodin and New Zealand market leader Will Edwards confirmed Ikea's first store would be in Auckland.

Edwards said the company wanted to 'give a piece of Ikea before the full meal comes along'.

But where could the pop-up store go?

Speculation has been rife, but a source working for a clothing retailer in the Sylvia Park mall in Auckland said the store was being replaced and extended out to fit a 'European retailer'.

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Construction is underway above the clothing store Industrie in Sylvia Park.

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The former Industrie menswear store appears to have construction work extending it out and upwards, with scaffolding currently in place directly above the store.

The employee said he was told four shops opposite footwear retailer Hannahs would be merged into one double-level shop.

A retail assistant at Sylvia Park said four shops would be merged into a single two-storey shop.

A spokeswoman for Kiwi Property, the owner of Sylvia Park, said Ikea would make for a 'great addition'.

'Ikea is an iconic retail brand and would be a great addition to the retail landscape in New Zealand,' she said.

She would not confirm what the retailer replacing Industrie was, and said further inquiries should be directed to Ikea.

But a spokeswoman for Ikea said it was still too early to reveal anything about its location.

Ikea has had bad luck with Mount Wellington previously, after a four year long pursuit to build a megastore came to a halt in 2008 when the Environment Court ruled the proposed location would create too much traffic.

IKEA NZ marketing leader Will Edward, left, and IKEA global chief executive Jesper Brodin at Ikea's Auckland store announcement.

Ikea's proposal was to open a 13,200 square metre store in Mt Wellington retail development Redwoods.

The council was prepared to give the green light to most of the Redwoods' plan except for Ikea.

At the announcement on Friday, Edwards said the Environment Court's ruling in 2008 had contributed to the importance of getting the right location, and had worked with government and local council from the beginning to avoid it happening again.

'When we're entering a new country we are coming as a guest. So it's very important that we join the community immediately in the right way. Those issues from 2008 were mostly centred around traffic, and of course New Zealanders love cars. So traffic is a challenge, but you do have a robust infrastructure and its important for us to get the right location,' Edwards said.

'It's important to get things right, sometimes things don't go according to plan.

'There's always a risk associated with any type of land and we've been in dialogue with the New Zealand government and local councils for quite sometime, and we feel together we will find absolutely the right place and have a positive impact and shouldn't experience those problems from the past.'

* This story has been updated to clarify the Sylvia Park spokeswoman said Ikea would be a great addition to the retail landscape, not the mall.