Swedish furniture store chain Ikea will open a second branch in Thailand at CentralPlaza Westgate shopping complex in Nonthaburi's Bang Yai district in the next two years.
Instead of building the second store on its own land as previously planned, Ikea has chosen to rent 40,000 square metres of space at CentralPlaza Westgate from SET-listed Central Pattana Plc (CPN).
Christian Rojkjaer, managing director of Ikano Ltd, Ikea's investment arm, said his company was in the process of store planning and conducting market research.
"The store concept of Ikea at CentralPlaza Westgate will be different from Ikea Megabangna," he said. "It will have a better integration with the shopping mall, and this will be the first Ikea store in the world to use this concept."
Ikea chose CentralPlaza Westgate because it is in the western part of Greater Bangkok, soon to be served by the Purple Line.
"Thailand and Malaysia are two focus markets for Ikea," Mr Rojkjaer said. "We continue to invest in Thailand because the Ikea concept store will fit well with Thai customers."
Wallaya Chirathivat, CPN's senior executive vice-president for business development and project construction, said the new Ikea store was scheduled to open in two years.
Ikea plans to have three stores in Thailand in the next five years, with the third one in a new CentralPlaza project in northern Greater Bangkok. There are two Ikeas in Singapore, two in Malaysia and one in Thailand.
"We want all of our Ikea stores to be part of inspiring retail destinations that make them as convenient as possible for people to shop and enjoy a day out with the family," Mr Rojkjaer said.
Yesterday, CPN announced CentralPlaza Westgate would open on Aug 28, standing on 100 rai and with gross space of 500,000 sq m. Ikea's entry made CPN change its development plan for CentralPlaza Westgate and drop new phases that would have included a hotel, office building and condominium.
"We believe this massive retail project will turn the Bang Yai intersection into a new shopping district," Ms Wallaya said.
She called the Bang Yai intersection a gateway to western Greater Bangkok and said CPN was confident in its potential due to government megaprojects linking different transport routes.
CentralPlaza Westgate will feature more than 500 retail shops and major tenants such as Central Department Store, Power Buy, B2S, OfficeMate, SuperSports, Tops Market and an international food centre covering 23,000 sq m. Up to 100,000 visitors a day are expected initially.
CPN shares closed yesterday on the SET at 47.50 baht, up 25 satang, in trade worth 219 million baht.