IKEA has opened a new small store in west Cairo's Mall of Arabia on Monday. The store spreads on 1,300 sqm in preparation for inaugurating another large store in the mall on 22,000 sqm by the end of 2020. Vinod Jayan managing director at IKEA UAE, Egypt, Qatar and Oman said that the IKEA has opened this store to serve people of west Cairo as the company's only permanent store in Egypt is located in east Cairo. Jayan added that his company was very keen on having a new store in west Cairo, explaining that it took only 21 days of preparation and equipment. Jayan elaborated that the company has inaugurated its second store during the current year in North Coast and planning to launch a new one in Alexandria but it did not specify the place yet. “The company is interested in expanding its investments in Egypt. Since the opening of our first and main store in Cairo Festival City in east Cairo in 2013 the store has received about 9 million visitors during that year,” Jayan noted. Moreover, the company plans to reach the largest number of customers, especially that it is the only one in the retail sector that has reduced its prices on about 1,200 products, he added. He stressed that Egypt has many competitive advantages in these products which are exported to many overseas markets. Marakez, one of Fawaz AlHokair Group companies that specialised in retail business and the owner of Mall of Arabia and Mall of Tanta, signed a long-term lease for the IKEA store in Mall of Arabia with Al-Futtaim Misr for Retail ( IKEA).
