Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
IKEA Group Accelerates Retail Development in France
June 1,
2026 by Karen Parrish in Business Strategy, Industry 
Ingka Group, the largest IKEA retailer, is accelerating retail development and expanding across new locations, aiming to become more accessible and affordable for customers. As part of its renewed focus on its core retail business, the company continues rolling out a new compact store format that it has been testing since 2025 in a couple of European markets and in the US.
After the UK, Poland, and the US, IKEA in France is opening its first two compact stores while announcing plans to welcome customers in 10 additional locations over the coming three years. The first such store, measuring 3,000 m², opened in Limoges on May 27, while the second one is set to open its doors in Le Mans in the coming period.
"France is an important market for IKEA, and we are continuing to implement our strategy announced in 2023 by increasing our investments in the country. With these new locations, our ambition is to bring IKEA to new places where our unique offering can truly make a difference in people’s everyday lives," said Juvencio Maetzu, CEO of Ingka Group.
Designed to open faster, these small stores for towns and suburbs will be located primarily in retail parks where people already go for their weekly shopping. And although on average about a tenth in size compared to the classic store, they offer more than a quarter of the IKEA range for immediate pick-up. Portugal, Spain, Italy, Canada, Finland and a few other markets will also open their first compact stores in the coming months.
"Having our recognizable home furnishing products within easy reach will hopefully make a real difference for many people. Knowing that for some of them this will be their first IKEA experience is incredibly exciting,” said Javier Quinones, global commercial manager, Ingka Group (IKEA).
Investing in the new smaller stores is part of Ingka Group’s EUR 5 billion three-year investment cycle aimed at opening new locations and improving existing ones across most of its 32 markets. In France, IKEA continues to deploy previously announced investments and is adding new ones totaling EUR 35 million for the 2026–2030 period.