The greatest occasion in New Zealand on Thursday might have been the opening of a furnishings retailer.
Eager customers counted down “3… 2…1” and waved Swedish flags as the doorways opened to IKEA’s most distant outpost from its motherland.
Thunderous applause rang out as crowds rushed inside the furnishings mecca’s latest store in Auckland, in a long-awaited opening that can finally give Kiwis entry to Scandinavian staples like the BILLY bookcase and the MALM mattress body.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon lower the ribbon and hailed the arrival of the inexpensive furnishings large as a win for New Zealand, which is fighting a cost-of-living disaster.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Luxon informed reporters. “What it represents is really good foreign investment in New Zealand, and also really great jobs.”
The first IKEA retailer opened in Sweden in 1958. The retailer is now in greater than 60 markets and recorded 44.6 billion Euros ($52 billion) in gross sales in the 2025 monetary 12 months.
Its signature kinds are ubiquitous in faculty dorm rooms and houses round the world. Time spent poring over IKEA meeting directions is a ceremony of passage for movers throughout continents.
New Zealand is one in all the final developed nations to get an IKEA, 50 years after the Swedish model opened in Australia. The Auckland store was first introduced again in 2019.
Around 800 folks had been gathered outdoors the much-anticipated Auckland retailer Thursday earlier than doorways opened at 11 a.m. native time, with some excited customers arriving as early as 4:30 a.m., in accordance to NCS affiliate Radio New Zealand.
Customer Bernie informed RNZ he had pushed over two-and-a-half hours from Papamoa, a suburb of the metropolis of Tauranga.
Ahead of the retailer’s opening, IKEA created the country’s first Life at Home report, documenting the quirky traits of greater than 500 Kiwi properties, the place the retailer discovered 93% of garages are carpeted and 88% of residence entryways are cluttered.
Mirja Viinanen, CEO & chief Sustainability officer of IKEA Australia and New Zealand, informed NCS the opening is a part of IKEA’s enlargement plan in the Asia-Pacific area.
Beyond the labyrinth megastores IKEA is understood for, the retailer plans to open extra “small format” retailers to be extra accessible to prospects in much less populated areas, Viinanen mentioned.
Once they work up an urge for food furnishings purchasing, Auckland customers can even have the ability to dine on Swedish delicacies at IKEA’s in-house cafe.
“Of course we have the meatballs,” Viinanen mentioned. “We have tons of meatballs.”
Luxon gave the meaty chunk his stamp of approval.
But when requested by a reporter if IKEA must be utilizing New Zealand beef, he declined to remark. “I’m not getting into that, that’s a decision for IKEA.”