IKEA To Open Central Texas Location In November

Furniture World Magazine

IKEA, a leading home furnishings retailer, announced that its future Round Rock, TX store will open at 9:00 AM on Wednesday, November 15, 2006. IKEA Round Rock will be the Swedish Company’s third store and restaurant destination in Texas and 29th in the U.S. (The closest IKEA stores are in the North Texas city of Frisco, and in Houston.) "Due to the significant progress made during Spring and so far this summer, we are confident the remaining milestones and interior build-up process will be complete by mid-November," noted Jeff O’Shaughnessy, store manager of the future IKEA Round Rock. O’Shaughnessy added, "now our primary objective is to continue hiring and training the nearly 300 Central Texans who will be joining the IKEA coworker family before we open." In addition to the 10,000 exclusively-designed items, IKEA Round Rock will present 50 different room settings, three complete model homes, a supervised children’s play area, and a 250-seat restaurant serving Swedish specialties such as meatballs with lingonberries or salmon plates, as well as American dishes. Other family-friendly features include a Children’s IKEA area in the showroom, baby care rooms, preferred parking and play areas throughout the store. Located on 21.5 acres at University Boulevard (formerly Chandler Road) and IH-35 in Round Rock, TX, the 252,000 square-foot IKEA store created 500 construction jobs and in November will welcome more than 300 new coworkers into the IKEA family of more than 10,000 in the U.S. and 90,000 globally. Although the future IKEA Round Rock is still progressing through 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 Round Rock also offers food service opportunities in its Restaurant, Swedish Foodmarket, Café Bistro and coworker cafeteria. There currently are more than 235 IKEA stores in 34 countries, including 28 in the U.S., where the company plans to open approximately three to five stores a year. Other U.S. stores are being planned in: Brooklyn, NY; Draper, UT; Dublin, CA; Orlando, FL; Portland, OR; Somerville, MA; Sunrise, FL; and West Chester, OH. 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 "100 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 incorporates environmentally friendly and socially responsible efforts into day-to-day business, and continuously supports initiatives that benefit causes such as children and the environment. For the IKEA Web Site or for information about working at IKEA, please go to www.IKEA-usa.com.