The company said it is looking to start a specialised service delivering products from Belgium, but would not be opening a physical location in the grand duchy.

The move is part of a shift in corporate strategy. Ikea said on 10 October that retail sales rose 4.5%, to €38.8bn, for its 2018 financial year. The company announced a push towards more e-commerce sales and opening smaller city centre stores, instead of the massive out-of-town locations that it is known for, where growth has slowed.

Torbjörn Lööf, CEO of Inter Ikea Group, which owns the Ikea brand, told Reuters:

“We see that we have flattened out a bit on sales in existing stores, while we have strong growth through expansion and online.”

An Ikea Group spokeswoman told Delano on 11 October that:

“Ikea Belgium is looking into a solution to offer products online to customers in Luxembourg, as we know the demand is high. However, at the moment we cannot give a concrete timing for this.”

The Ikea representative said the focus would be deliveries to the grand duchy and the company had no plans to open a shop here.

Currently its closest locations to Luxembourg are large stores outside of Arlon in Belgium, Metz in France and Saarlouis in Germany.

The group also stated that its franchisees would open 15 new retail locations between September 2018 and August 2019. The retailer opened 19 stores during its 2018 financial year, bringing the total to 422 in 50 markets.