IKEA, a member of the Al-Futtaim Group, will be opening a 35,000 sq metre store at Dubai Festival City's retail arm, Festival Centre, in November 2005. Four times bigger than IKEA's existing location at Deira City Centre, the new store will include parking for 1,200 vehicles and will offer unparalleled levels of service through increased floor space, an increased product line-up and overall enhancements.
IKEA's well-known self-serve and self-assemble concept is unique and has won the famous home furnishings retailer world acclaim since its humble beginnings in Sweden over half a century ago. Continuing the well-known message of "Big on Ideas, Low on Prices", the IKEA store at DFC's Festival Centre will have 54 room sets for customers to envisage exactly how their homes can look. Home furnishing ideas will flow freely throughout the store and home consultancy experts will be on hand to help and advise.
At a recent press conference, when a helicopter trip gave journalists the opportunity of seeing the massive scale of the new site, Jim McCallum, Al-Futtaim Group Director - Retail Division said: "IKEA's move to Dubai Festival City's Retail Park will bring an unheralded response. As a result of expansion and added facilities, the store will stand as a shining example of the unique IKEA concept of supplying well-designed functional home furnishings at exceptionally low prices. Customers will be able to browse and feel at home like never before."
Dubai Festival City will be the third move for IKEA's Dubai store which started operations on Zabeel Road in 1991 then relocated to Deira City Centre in 1995 in order to answer the needs of its growing customer base for a wide range of well designed functional home furnishing products. With a complete self-serve and full-serve concept, customers will be able to take 95% of their purchases home from the new store on the same day.
Housed at Dubai Festival City's Retail Park, the new IKEA store will be the largest in the Middle East, fulfilling IKEA's promise of catering to the needs of the family. Close to the planning areas will be a dedicated play area for children, giving customers the opportunity to browse and discuss important needs in a relaxed manner. The restaurant, famous for its offering of top-class meals at extremely low prices, will seat 300 and will also carry a children's menu. Wider aisles will facilitate ease of movement throughout the store and there will be twenty-two check-out points, as opposed to seven at the existing Dubai store. Sweden will be brought even closer to customers through a unique Swedish Foodmarket, stocking typical Swedish food, situated next to a large exit caf.
IKEA recently won an award from Gulf Marketing Review for Integrated Marketing, specifically for the marketing of the IKEA Catalogue which is its main marketing medium. The catalogue is distributed free of cost to people's doorsteps throughout the UAE every year, bringing the IKEA store to their homes, showing inspiration, low prices and the wide range, with prices valid for an entire year. The 2006 catalogue will be distributed in October this year, one month before the new store opening, covering both Dubai and Abu Dhabi markets.
"Inspiring ideas at incredibly low prices is the essence of IKEA. Through its unique self-serve and self-assembly concept it has developed a partnership with customers, resulting in the ultimate satisfaction which IKEA has become known for throughout the world," said Mile Franicevic, General Manager, IKEA UAE. "The family is always top of mind for IKEA and the new store at Dubai Festival City's Retail Park will honour that ideal," he concluded.
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© Press Release 2005
