Ikea breaks ground for Bang Yai outlet

“We are creating the world’s best integration of a Ikea store into a shopping centre,” said Sebastian Hylving, expansion director for Ikano Private Ltd, holder of the Ikea franchise rights in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

The branch will offer wide-open entrances at all levels of the CentralPlaza WestGate shopping centre and a direct link to the future mass-transit line.In a highly complex design, the showroom and a market hall are housed inside an expansive two-storey concourse that creates a bridge to the WestGate mall.

The Ikea self-service warehouse will be on the ground floor.

“This is not going to be the usual blue box,” said Lacia Sherlock, Ikea retail project leader for Ikano.

“This will be the only Ikea store that offers customers an opportunity to enter and check out at every level. We will deliver a fantastic customer experience.”

Mike King, the Ikea retail director for Ikano, is confident that many of the 1.6 million people who live in Bang Yai and the surrounding area – including a growing population of young families – will make the trip to the new store when it opens at the end of next year.

“There may be a lot of competition in the home furnishing business here in Thailand, but no other retailer offers the whole family a great day out in the way Ikea does,” he said.

The Bang Yai Ikea store is an integral part of the overall expansion plan for Ikano. In November, the company opened a second store in Kuala Lumpur and a pick-up and order point in Phuket.

The Bang Yai project marks Ikano’s first collaboration with Central Pattana, developer of the shopping centre.