Sweden’s Ikea on its way to NZ

Relief could finally be in sight for fans of Swedish furniture giant Ikea, with reports the company will make its long-awaited move into New Zealand within months. Australian chief executive Jan Gardberg said the company would arrive ‘‘in the next three to four months’’, BusinessDesk reported yesterday. ‘‘We have already the locations, the strategy, who we are doing the deals with, and so on,’’ Gardberg said. The company has had its eye on the Kiwi market since adding New Zealand to its annual study of home life habits in 2018. In 2019, it announced plans for a store in Auckland that was expected to create up to 400 jobs once fully operational. An update in February last year outlined plans for a full-sized Ikea store in the greater Auckland area, as well as a planning studio in Wellington and a second smaller-format store in Christchurch. The smallformat stores, the first of which was opened in Australia in 2019, usually carry only a partial range, with bigger items not on display but available to order for delivery.