IKEA to open smallest-yet Israeli store at Tel Aviv Port

International furniture giant continues growth in Israel, having opened huge store in Beersheba in 2018, planning another in 2020 near Bit Shemesh

Swedish furniture and home accessories giant IKEA continues its steady growth in Israel with its first store in Tel Aviv, which is set to open later this year.

The store will focus on kitchens, the Globes business daily reported on Thursday, and will have just 2,000 square meters (21,500 square feet) of floor space, roughly one-tenth the size of its next-smallest Israeli store. (IKEA’s largest Israeli store, located in Rishon Lezion, boasts 34,000 square meters, or 366,000 square feet.)

But what it lacks in floor space the new store will make up for in prestige. It is set to open at Pavilion 11 at the Tel Aviv Port, one of the swankiest shopping and entertainment districts in the country.

The chain already has megastores in Netanya (founded in 2001), Rishon Lezion (2010), in the northern town of Kiryat Ata (2014) and the southern city of Beersheba (2018), and a massive new 25,000-meter store in Eshtaol, near Beit Shemesh, is set to open in 2020.

The expansion in Israel is a sign of the brand’s popularity, which has seen it grow to over 420 stores in 52 countries.

The new Tel Aviv store is part of a trend of smaller urban stores that IKEA hopes will help raise its brand profile and thereby bolster its presence amid growing competition from big online retailers.

The news of IKEA’s Tel Aviv plans comes just one month after the company announced the upcoming Eshtaol store.

A foundation stone was laid for that store on December 11 in the presence of Matthew Bronfman and Shalom Fisher, owners of the IKEA Israel franchise, and IKEA Israel CEO Shuki Koblenz.

The decision to build the fifth store in Eshtaol reportedly followed fruitless attempts to find an appropriate site in Jerusalem.