Brno Ikea has doubled its capacity, making it the largest in the Czech Republic

Brno - The company Ikea has doubled the sales area of its department store in Brno. Furniture and home accessories are now offered in 25,500 square meters. The Brno department store has thus become the largest store of the company in the country. The renovation of the building cost 600 million crowns and took twelve months. Ikea has four department stores in the Czech Republic and plans to build two more within the next two to three years, said Andrew North, the director of Ikea for the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary, to CTK today.
The Brno Ikea was established ten years ago, occupying only the ground floor of a multi-story building. Now, the furniture store has moved to the first floor, offering around 60 styled interiors. The area of the restaurant has increased about threefold, which now has a capacity of around 600 seats. The number of employees has increased by 70 to 250, primarily in the positions of salespeople, cashiers, and warehouse workers.
According to experts' estimates, the positions of specialized furniture retail chains are gradually strengthening in the domestic market. Among Ikea stores, the largest are Asko Furniture and Sconto Furniture. Czechs spend several tens of billions of crowns on furniture annually.
Similarly large department stores with a capacity of around 20,000 to 30,000 m² are, according to North, a standard in Western Europe, with the nearest being located in Austria. One of the largest Ikea stores with a sales area of around 40,000 m² is in Berlin.
"The Brno Ikea is not only the largest department store in the Czech Republic, but also in Slovakia and Hungary. Thanks to the expansion of the sales area and warehouses, we can now offer the complete range of Ikea. Customers will no longer find the note 'not in the product range of the Brno store' in the catalog," said Petr Novotný, the manager of the Brno department store.
In Western Europe, furniture sales are currently going through a recession, but according to North, the company is doing very well in the Czech Republic. "Next year we plan to start the reconstruction of the department store in Ostrava. Within two to three years, we would like to open another two department stores in the Czech Republic. However, we will not reveal where it will be yet; our intention is to buy large areas of around 30 hectares, and if we disclosed our intentions, the land prices would increase rapidly," North said.
Ikea operates four department stores with furniture and home accessories in the Czech Republic. In addition to Brno, also in Ostrava and two in Prague. In the past financial year, Ikea stores in the Czech Republic reported a year-on-year sales increase of 17 percent to 5.8 billion crowns. Net profit rose to a record 464 million crowns from 148 million in 2006. The financial year 2007 for Ikea CR began in September 2006 and ended last August.