IKEA Brunant

IKEA is a Swedish department store chain that sells ready-to-assemble furniture, appliances and home accessories. It is known for their familiar design of department stores. With their recent expansion to other countries of the world, it has been guessed that IKEA is interested in the Brunant market and may open a store there, which came true in 2014.

IKEA in Brunant
On February 15, 2014, the Chairman and CEO of IKEA, Peter Agnefjall announced that they will open an IKEA store in Brunant in the summer, after their Amman store in Jordan opened in March, 2014. It was intially rumoured that the first store would be opened right near Koningstad International Airport and A1 after construction has been spotted in that area. However, IKEA released an announcement in April reporting that, "although our first store was originally going to open in Koningstad, it has been delayed. Our first store is now going to open in Grijzestad."

After designing two empty stores on the first and second floors in Nieuwgalerie, and connecting the two together via esclators and elevators, the date was set for grand opening on June 4, 2014. At the grand opening, there was reports that almost 3,000 shoppers all over Brunant had flocked to Grijzestad for this event. After a ribbon cutting, the store was crowded with shoppers wanting to get the "grand opening deals" that IKEA had set up for this event. The owner of Nieuwgalerie was thankful that IKEA opened up its store there, saying that "before IKEA had opened in the mall, there was some traffic but not much. Since IKEA has opened in our mall, traffic to our mall has increased by 120%."

On June 15, 2014, IKEA Brunant (formed three days before the grand opening of the store in Nieuwgalerie) had announced that "we have finally muddled through the issues that delayed our construction of the store in Koningstad." It has been confirmed by locals living in the area as they saw construction efforts restarting. IKEA Brunant has estimated that the store in Koningstad will open by early August.