Beijing opens 2nd IKEA

Customers come to visit Ikea's new store in Beijing, Nov 4, 2013. [Photo/icpress.cn]

Swedish home furnishing giant IKEA opens its 14th store in China on Thursday, accelerating the retail expansion in the world's fastest growing economy.

The new store, also the second in Beijing, will be one of four full-range standard IKEA stores in China.

"After providing furnishing solutions for people living in the north part of the city, now we open a store in the south part of the city to further fulfill our vision of 'creating a better everyday life for people'," said Zhu Changlai, IKEA China retail manager.

A staff member of IKEA prepares for the opening of its 14th store in China on Nov 06, 2013 in Beijing. [Zhang Wei / China Daily]

In 1998, IKEA opened its first store in Shanghai, and one year later a second store in Beijing. However, the furnishing company suspended expansion for five years and later opened a third location in Guangzhou in 2005.

In 2010, the company boosted expansion in China with a speed of opening one or two stores a year.

And during its 2013 fiscal year, which ended on August 31, IKEA opened three stores in Wuxi, Ningbo and Shanghai, marking its third location in the city, and also the biggest in Asia.

"After the newly-opened second store in south Beijing, we will have new stores in Chongqing and Wuhan in our 2014 fiscal year," said Zhu.