As Swedish flat-pack furniture giant Ikea prepares to lodge a planning application for a superstore alongside the M50, its property manager has described long trips by car to the company's stores in Britain as "unsustainable".
Big out-of-town stores, such as that being planned for a site north of Ballymun, are now off the agenda for Ikea in Britain because of planning restrictions there. Instead, further expansion will involve a string of stores in city centres.
Ikea is to spend €1.4 billion on 10 new stores in Britain as part of a revamped strategy which will shift its focus away from greenfield sites. The first of these will be in Coventry.
The company had become synonymous with huge stores on the outskirts of London, Newcastle, Glasgow and Edinburgh. But it was forced to drop plans for a similar development near Manchester after the scheme was rejected on planning grounds.
Ikea also believes it can no longer rely on customers being prepared to drive huge distances to its stores, the report said. As part of its latest expansion programme, it will also launch a new website allowing customers in Britain to buy goods online.
"We have traditionally expanded on the edge of town centres but in the last three or four years it has become increasingly difficult to get planning consent," Scott Cordrey, Ikea's property manager, told the BBC.
"More than 30 per cent of our business is with people who are travelling for two hours to reach an Ikea store. For us, that is not sustainable," he said.
In Ireland, by contrast, a 6,500 sq metre (70,000sq ft) cap on the size of superstores was lifted last year by Minister for the Environment Dick Roche with the specific objective of facilitating the development of an Ikea store on a site beside the M50.
The company is expected to seek planning permission this month to build a 28,000s q metre (301,390sq ft) outlet on the 31-acre site at Balcurris, following a decision by Fingal County Council to approve a local area plan to provide for it.
The traffic impact of the proposal has been queried by some Fingal councillors, given that it could increase traffic volumes on the M50 by 12 per cent at peak shopping times. The National Roads Authority has also expressed concern about access to Dublin airport.
Green Party councillors sought unsuccessfully to amend the area plan so that the store would be located beside the proposed metro station on Ballymun Road and that on-site parking should be charged with the aim of encouraging customers to use public transport.
Cllr David Healy said: "This is exactly the kind of motorway-based shopping development which increases car dependency and marginalises those who don't own cars."
A spokesman for Ikea said the company "didn't need to create a new format" for the proposed Ballymun store because it was located "right next to a motorway".
