Home furnishing company IKEA has announced its intention to open a new store in Sheffield as it revealed it is in the process of preparing a planning application for a new IKEA store in the city.

IKEA has entered into discussions with Sheffield City Council over proposals to convert a derelict industrial site opposite the Mercedes and Porsche Garages on Sheffield Road.

Before a planning application is submitted, IKEA would like to meet the local community to hear their views on the proposals. The community consultation on the plans will begin with a public exhibition to showcase the proposals to be held on Friday 19th April (10am to 5.30pm) and Saturday 20th April (10am to 5pm) in the Arundel Room at the Millennium Galleries, Sheffield City Centre. Following consultation, a formal planning application for the proposals would then be submitted to Sheffield City Council.

The new 37,000 sq m store would sell the full IKEA range of products, comprising of 9,500 articles, and would create up to 400 jobs in a wide range of different roles, including positions in customer relations, sales, interior design, IT, sustainability, marketing and the IKEA restaurant. The company will work with local employment agencies to ensure that local people benefit from the jobs created.

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Ian Nicholson, IKEA Sheffield Project Manager, said: "We are really excited about the prospect of bringing IKEA’s value for money home furnishings offer to Sheffield. We have been looking for a site in South Yorkshire for many years now, as currently our customers in this area have to travel quite far to either Leeds or Nottingham to shop with us.

"An IKEA store in Sheffield will be a major boost to the whole city, not just in terms of jobs, but also by adding to the total retail offer. As is the case in cities across the UK, our store would complement, not compete with, the city centre retail offer. We are looking forward to introducing our plans to the local community in the coming weeks and hope as many people as possible attend the public exhibition to see for themselves what IKEA can offer to Sheffield."

In order to develop a store in Sheffield, IKEA needed to find a site that was large enough to accommodate everything you find in a usual store, such as the showroom, market hall and warehouse, along with the restaurant, crèche, staff facilities and customer service areas. Importantly, it also needed to be well-located close to a major road network and public transport in order to minimise the impact on local residential communities.

Having reviewed a large number of potential sites across the city, including some within the city centre itself, the site on Sheffield Road was identified as the only one to meet all of IKEA's requirements and is also well-served by public transport, making it easy to access from the City Centre.

(CD)