IKEA Opens its Doors in Croatia

Popularity Swedish furniture retailer IKEA, a byword for design and practicality throughout the Western hemisphere, is opening near Zagreb, Croatia, on 21 August.

The IKEA centre in Zagreb is the result of an investment of 91 million euro and is the first such store in the Western Balkans, where it is expected to act as a regional hub.

Customers from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia and Serbia, as well as Croatia, are expected to head for the store, after years of having to go further afield to Graz in Austria, or to Budapest, in search of Swedish home furniture.

The 38,000-square-metre building will contain a selection of 9,500 products. Importantly for the local economy, it will employ 349 people.

The centre is opening its doors after seven years of preparation, which began in 2007, when IKEA Croatia Ltd was created. The management chose Rugvica as the location of the centre and bought the site for 30 million euro in 2008.

IKEA signed a contract with Croatian Highways to co-finance access to the centre from the nearest highway in 2011.

Although construction was planned for 2010, building permits were not in fact completed until late 2012, and construction started in August 2013.