NIDO LIVING
A homegrown rival for Ikea
Afurniture retailer of mass scale set to rival Ikea is under construction in a West Auckland suburb and will open its doors in the spring. Nido Living will open its 27,000sq m store — larger than the size of three rugby fields — in Henderson but will turn on its online store before then.
Details on the timing of the Henderson store’s opening are unknown.
The mega-store’s construction will cost more than $60 million. So far it is 10 per cent complete. Once open, it will employ about 200 staff.
Nido is founded by civil engineer Vinod Kumar, who has owned three Mitre 10 stores and helped to develop the Mitre 10 Mega concept store.
The Nido managing director said the furniture retailer will open after nine years of research into innovative retail models around the world.
Plans for the store began two years ago and building at the 31,000sq m site, including the car park, began in October.
Nido is much like Ikea and will, like the Swedish retailer, have an instore restaurant and children’s play area.
Kumar could not share details on the restaurant but said the cuisine would reflect Nido being New Zealand owned and operated.
He said the timing was not aimed to beat Ikea’s New Zealand debut.
“We knew one day they will come but that actually wasn’t a hindrance at all,” he said.
“We were going to do it regardless.” Nido will sell furniture and homeware from 80 European brands and the Henderson mega-store will feature more than 100 display rooms.
It will have a product range of 10,000 items — more than the range of 7000 products Ikea has said it would stock when it eventually opens an Auckland store.
The retailer’s first store will open in Auckland before it expands into the regions. Christchurch and Tauranga would be logical secondary and third sites, Kumar said.
“What we intend to do is actually be able to service the whole country.”
Before the Henderson store opens, Nido will in June launch its online store, servicing it from a distribution centre near the Ports of Auckland.
Kumar did not think Ikea was a threat to Nido.
“We believe in competition — it will be good for the public to have more choice, something Kiwis have not be entitled to for quite a while.
“This will be completely new for the country and because it is affordable I think Kiwis will love it. It will bring people to see it, for example if they come [to Auckland] to see the cricket or rugby.”
Kumar said retail prices at Nido would be in line with those of Ikea’s, but it would also offer high-end, more premium products and customisation services.
Jonathan Elms, Massey University retail and marketing professor, says it’s bad timing for Nido to be opening a store with a similar offering now
This will be completely new for the country and because it is affordable I think Kiwis will love it.
Vinod Kumar, Nido founder
Ikea has announced it will open here.
“Ikea have a lot of resource, a lot of talent and they could effectively squeeze them out of the market place relatively easily if this new outfit tries to compete with them directly,” Elms said. “What they could do is come into New Zealand and be a loss-leader for a period of time and squeeze out that sort of competition.
“It’s not going to be a categorical disaster for them but they’ve got to offer something different — they can’t go and emulate what Ikea has done overseas.”
Elms, said he was not convinced the Ikea-esque allure of Nido or the local store’s head start would be enough to win Ikea’s following in NZ.
“Yes, Ikea aren’t here at the moment but a lot of Kiwis are aware of what the brand is and what the experience is. Nido will be judged in terms of reference to Ikea.”
There is a furniture store trading under the name of Nido Living in San Francisco. Kumar said he did not know anything about it when he was questioned by the Herald.