IKEA to open 15-20 stores in Russia by 2008

'IKEA will have opened 15-20 stores and invested over USD 400 million in Russia by 2008,' announced Peter Partma, head of IKEA Russia, announced at a press conference devoted to the final stage of construction of the first IKEA store in the Leningrad Region. IKEA has been in Russia for three and a half years and in this time two stores have opened near Moscow and USD 400 million has been invested. 'Each IKEA store in the Moscow Region is visited by about 4-5 million people a year and this is the maximum capacity. On average, IKEA stores are only visited by 1-1.5 million people a year in other countries,' Mr Partma said.

He added that IKEA intends to open three new stores every year over the next five years in order to provide Russian people with access to good quality and inexpensive furniture. There will be 6 stores in Moscow and 3 in Saint Petersburg. There will also be IKEA stores in 12-13 other Russian cities. 'There are already two stores open in the Moscow Region and we are expecting to open two more in the near future. The IKEA Kudrovo store will open in the Leningrad Region in December and IKEA Kazan will open in March 2004. It is then possible that a store will be opened in Nizhni Novgorod. However, we are still not ready to specify about the dates and locations for IKEA stores in other cities,' Mr Partma said.

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