Ikea buys old Topshop store in central London for £ 378 million

By Anna Ringstrom

STOCKHOLM, Oct 26 (Reuters) – Ikea has agreed to buy the former flagship store of British fashion chain Topshop in London for £ 378m (€ 446.7m) from the directors of its bankrupt owner Arcadia Group. City centers.

Christer Matson, head of Inga’s investment division, which owns most of the stores of Swedish furniture companies, told Reuters that the three floors of the building in London’s Oxford Circus will open in the summer or fall. 2023.

“It fits in well with our strategy. It’s a meeting place – it’s one of the best places to visit in Europe, with an incredible number of people passing by every week,” he explains.

In recent years, Ikea has revised its strategy to accommodate changes in purchasing behavior by opening stores in city centers, in addition to its giant warehouses outside the city.

Its first downtown store opened in 2019 at the Place de la Medellin in Paris. In London, the first store located in the Hammersmith district is set to open in the coming months.

Krister Mattsson said the next London store to open at 214 Oxford Street instead of Topshop will be Ikea’s largest city center to date.

The Swedish company is considering other residences in the city center of large congregations in Europe and North America. The cities of Milan, Rome and Berlin are among the top priorities for Inga investment, said Christer Matson.

(French version edited by Dagmarah Macos, Blandine Hénault)