Canton Location to Be 1st IKEA Store in Michigan

Furniture World Magazine

IKEA, a leading home furnishings retailer, announced that its future Canton, MI store will open on Wednesday, June 7, 2006. IKEA Canton will be the Swedish company's first store and restaurant destination in Michigan, fourth in the Upper Midwest, and 28th in the U.S. (The closest IKEA stores are in the Chicago area and in greater Toronto.) "Due to the significant progress made before Winter and the accomplishments so far this year, we are confident our remaining milestones and interior build-up process will be complete by early June," noted Mark McCaslin, store manager of the future IKEA Canton. McCaslin added, "right now our primary objective is to continue hiring and training the almost 400 Michiganders who will be joining the IKEA coworker family before we open." Located on 21 acres at Ford and Haggerty Roads off I-275 in Canton, MI, the 311,000 square-foot IKEA store created 500 construction jobs and in June will welcome 400 coworkers into the IKEA family of more than 10,000 coworkers in the U.S. and 90,000 globally. In addition to 10,000 exclusively designed items, IKEA Canton will present 50 different room settings, three model homes, a supervised children's play area, and a 300-seat restaurant serving Swedish specialties such as meatballs with lingonberries and salmon plates, as well as American dishes. Other family-friendly features will include a Children's IKEA area in the showroom, baby care rooms, preferred parking and play areas throughout the store. Although the future IKEA Canton is still progressing through construction and outfitting phases, prospective coworkers are welcome to apply for diverse positions available in: home furnishings sales, interior decoration, customer service, safety and security, cashiers, maintenance, goods flow, receiving, warehouse and stock replenishment. IKEA Canton also offers food service opportunities in its Restaurant, Swedish Foodmarket, Cafe Bistro and coworker cafeteria. There currently are more than 230 IKEA stores in 33 countries, including 27 in the U.S., where IKEA aims to open five stores a year. Other U.S. store locations being planned are: Brooklyn, NY; Draper, UT; Dublin, CA; Portland, OR; Round Rock, TX; Somerville, MA; and Sunrise, FL. Since its 1943 founding in Sweden, IKEA has offered a wide range of home furnishings and accessories of good design and function, at low prices so the majority of the people can afford them. IKEA has been ranked in FORTUNE's annual "1 0 Best Companies to Work For" List (two years in a row), Working Mother magazine's annual list of "100 Best Companies for Working Mothers" (three years in a row) and Training magazine's annual "Top 100" ranking of companies that excel at human capital development (four years in a row). IKEA is recognized as a socially responsible company that incorporates environmentally friendly efforts into day-to-day business and continuously supports initiatives that benefit causes such as children and the environment. To visit the IKEA Web Site or for information about working at IKEA, go to http://www.IKEA-usa.com.