‘Emotional’ XXXLutz ready to open more shops in Sweden
Furniture megastore chain XXXLutz bosses have described the firms upcoming expansion to Sweden as an “emotional highlight”.The Wels-based company will open its first shop in the homeland of global market leader Ikea next month. Around 300 staff will find work in the 25,000-square-metre store in the southern city of Malmo from 4 November.Thomas Saliger, the Upper Austrian firms marketing chief, admitted today (Weds) the expansion was something special for XXXLutz. “It will be an emotional highlight for us,” he said.Saliger explained XXXLutz, which took over Slovenian competitor Lesnina and a string of former family businesses in Germany, planned the entering of the Swedish market for one year. “We trained the people who will work at the shop in Malmo in Austria. They ran a test store here,” he said.Saliger revealed the Austrian firm was ready to increase its activities in the Scandinavian country. “If our shop in Malmo does well, we might open five or six more shops in Sweden,” he said.Meanwhile, good news also come from the Austrian furniture retail trade.Market analysis agency RegioPlan said recently that the sector grew for a sixth year in a row in 2009.”The domestic furniture retail trade managed to increase its overall turnover by 1.6 per cent last year compared to the 2008 business figures,” the agency said.RegioPlan also announced it expected the sector to grow by two per cent year on year this year.