After years of seemingly unstoppable expansion Ikea has announced that it will close its first store in the UK.
The Coventry store will close in the summer, after the Swedish flat-pack giant abandoned attempts to downsize the store, which pays the council nearly £1m a year in business rates.
Paul Jelkeby, Ikea’s UK retail manager, said that the Coventry store’s consistent losses were largely due to its design.
Its city centre location meant that it had to be built with seven storeys in order to reach the standard shop size of 2,700 sqft.
Ikea now opts for smaller units in city centre locations.
