// Plans for new Ikea store in Lancing, West Sussex shelved
// Ikea cited an “incredibly fast-changing retail environment and customer shopping habits” as reasons
// The new Ikea store would have created 450 job opportunities
Ikea has scrapped plans to open a brand new store near Brighton and Hove amid concerns of changing consumer behaviour.
The Swedish furniture retailer confirmed the decision to back out of opening a new store in Lancing, West Sussex, earlier this week.
It cited an “incredibly fast-changing retail environment and customer shopping habits” – namely the accelerated rise of online shopping brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic – as reasons for not progressing with the store.
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The new Ikea store would have created 450 job opportunities.
Ikea bought the New Monks Farm site in Lancing – located between Brighton and Hove Albion FC training ground and Shoreham Airport – in 2016.
Manager Richard Rands said that while the news “may disappoint some”, Ikea still believes “there is great potential in Sussex” but conceded that a new store was not the “optimum” way to reach customers in the area.
Rands highlighted how local Ikea customers can instead shop online and use the home delivery service.
While the land Ikea had secured in Lancing will now be advertised for sale as part of an open bidding process, the rest of the development – including 600 homes – is still to go ahead.
A spokesman for Adur District Council said it “remains committed” to the construction of these homes.
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