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By Anna Ringstrom
STOCKHOLM, Oct 26 (Reuters) - IKEA, the world's biggest
furniture brand, has agreed to buy the iconic former flagship
store of British fashion chain Topshop in central London from
the administrators of bankrupt owner Arcadia Group, part of its
push to open inner-city outlets.
Krister Mattsson, head of the investment arm of Ingka Group
which owns most IKEA stores, told Reuters that three floors of
the seven-storey building on Oxford Street, which it is buying
for £378 million ($520 million), would be turned into an IKEA
store due to open in the summer or autumn of 2023.
"This is a very good fit into our strategy. This is a
meeting place - it's one of the best spots for visitation in
Europe, with amazing numbers of people passing by every week,"
Mattsson, managing director of Ingka Investment, said in an
interview.
IKEA has tweaked its strategy in recent years towards adding
inner-city store formats besides its giant out-of-town warehouse
stores to reflect changing shopping behaviour.
It opened its first inner-city full-range store in Paris in
2019. Its first centrally located store in London is due to open
in the coming months, in the borough of Hammersmith.
"The investment supports the transformation of Ingka Group’s
retail business, bringing IKEA closer to customers," Ingka
Investments said in a statement.
Mattsson said the Oxford Street store would be IKEA's
biggest inner-city format store to date.
Ingka Investments and IKEA's shopping malls arm Ingka
Centres are scouting for suitable centrally located properties
across major cities in Europe and North America. Milano, Rome
and Berlin are high on the agenda for Ingka Investments,
Mattsson said.
He said there had been several bidders for the Oxford Street
property. Overall in the segment where IKEA is looking to buy,
interest from both institutional investor and other retailers
was increasing alongside consumers' return to stores, he said.
($1 = 0.7272 pounds)
(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom; Editing by Jan Harvey)