Hej! Take a look inside Ikea’s first New Zealand store

Thursday, 4 September 2025

Johanna Cederlöf, Ikea NZ market manager, inside Ikea's Auckland store entrance.

Walking through Ikea Sylvia Park in Auckland, it’s hard to grasp the true size of the store that will be the furniture giant’s first in New Zealand.

Equivalent in size to three rugby fields, it feels bigger with the empty shelves and yet-to-be-decorated showrooms, a shell of what it will be in just three months’ time.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and local media at an event on Thursday to reveal the opening date were given a tour inside Ikea Sylvia Park, to be shown the progress in advance of the retailer’s December 4 opening.

We saw empty shelves towering metres above, where the 420-seat Swedish restaurant and food-to-go bistro will be set up, the entrance hall and the space that will soon become the check-out area.

But that will change quickly.

Johanna Cederlöf, Ikea NZ market manager, told The Post that the store would come to life over the next three months ahead of its opening, as more staff began working with Ikea.

“We’re looking forward to how Kiwis enter into Ikea Sylvia Park store and start to order online across the whole country, and hopefully in future, the direction is that we want to grow and we want to be more approachable for the many,” Cederlöf said.

Next week about 200 staff members will begin moving stock from its Mangere warehouse near Auckland Airport into the store, with the mammoth task of filling the shelves, and preparing for the December opening.

Ikea’s executives are expecting eager shoppers to camp outside of the store in the lead up to the opening and thousands of people to queue up through opening week and ahead of the festive period.

Anticipating huge crowds, Ikea says it plans to have “practice” store openings to learn how to best manage numbers, and have been working with transport authorities to manage traffic in the area.

A look at what will be the check-out area in Ikea Sylvia Park.

So far, just over 200 staff have joined the retailer, with between 50-80 new people starting work for the company every week from now until December.

Ikea received 25,000 job applications to work in Ikea Sylvia Park, a record number for the 520 positions available, the company said.

At least 150 people will be stocking the shelves from next week until the December opening.

Cederlöf said it was all-hands of deck training staff right now behind the scenes for readying the 34,000sqm store for opening.

“It's going to be a massive project. First we are starting to assemble all of the model pieces - 7500 model pieces will be assembled and priced, and put out for customers to touch and feel, and additionally we will fill all the shelves, all the sales locations, all the buffer locations. It's a massive workload to get the ships in and products to all of the country.”

Cederlöf said Ikea products would be competitive with other retailers in this market, and it was currently working through pricing to ensure it was affordable, including deals it was setting up for its Family Membership members.

“It's up to Kiwis how they start to shop with us, also beyond Auckland, so in other cities as well, and that will indicate for us that where we need to expand.”

The famous Ikea meatballs will be served here at Ikea’s Sylvia Park restaurant.

Its full range of products will be available to all of New Zealand through nationwide delivery and 29 pick-up collection points from Kaitaia through to Invercargill.

Construction on Ikea Sylvia Park began in 2023, after the retailer first announced its intention to set up shop in New Zealand in 2019.

Mirja Viinanen, Ikea Australia and NZ chief executive and chief sustainability officer, said Ikea “was grateful for the country’s patience as we have been busy laying the foundations of our first home in Aotearoa”.

They may be empty showrooms but soon 7500 model pieces will be assembled, priced and put out for customers to touch and feel.

Expansion beyond Auckland

Ikea Australia & New Zealand expansion manager Fabian Winterbine said Ikea would wait to see how the Sylvia Park store and its online shopping is received before it makes any more decisions on further expansion.

“Once we're sort of settled here, we’ll get a sense of how it's performing, where are customer’s coming from, and then we’ll start to look at what other options we have. Of course, we’ve eyed Wellington and Christchurch's potential, but we haven't put a time frame yet on when and probably what that would look like.

First customer? Prime Minister Christopher Luxon receives a bag of Ikea products during the tour of Ikea Sylvia Park.

“We have other formats that are other than big box, so that is something we'll also look at in the future for other parts of New Zealand too.”

Winterbine said potential for future expansion in this country would be looked at within six to 12 months of Ikea Sylvia Park opening.

“We already have all the market information, so I think within the first 12 months, we will have plans. We continue to look at ways in which we can reach our customers.”

Ikea executives said it was “great” to have the support of the prime minister for Ikea to expand further throughout New Zealand.

Luxon seemed impressed with what he saw, and he encouraged the furniture and homewares giant to open more stores across the country.

He welcomed international investment such as Ikea had put into the country and said “the benefits are huge” as the retailer to establish itself in New Zealand.

“More jobs and economic growth, that’s good for New Zealand,” Luxon told media. He said the Government was making changes to welcome more international investment into the country, such as making it easier to get consent approvals within six months rather than years.

“For a company like Ikea that has hundreds stores around the world, there are lots of cities and countries around the world that they want them to come [there] so we have to be competitive and make processes as simple as possible for them to want to invest in our country.”