What compelled you to choose Belgrade as IKEA’s headquarters for Southeast Europe?
– IKEA SEE recently opened its third store in the region and the first in Serbia (Belgrade East). This will be the first step in our two-stage Establishment Plan for Belgrade, which includes two stores over the long term.
The IKEA SEE Regional Office is located in Belgrade in order to support our expansion in the region, as well as the operational and commercial success of our growing number of existing stores and networks of other sales points, such as so-called pickup points.
For practical, logistical and operational reasons, the Service Office is located in Belgrade due to its advantages in connection with other countries in the SEE region. It was established in 2008 to support expansion in Serbia, Slovenia and Croatia, and from 2010 we also added Romania to our portfolio.
improving business climate and growing economy makes Belgrade an attractive regional centre for business development
Belgrade is ideally positioned to enable easy mobility for our colleagues who have regional responsibilities. It is connected via a highway to Croatia and Slovenia, with a maximum drive time of four and five hours respectively. Driving distance to Romania varies, depending on the city and road quality, due to the fact that Romania does not have a developed highway network.
More importantly, Belgrade airport is a major aviation hub for the entire area of Southern and Eastern Europe. Belgrade is the only capital from which it is possible to fly directly to the other capitals of the region.
In previous years, Serbia has also seen significant improvements in moving towards a more favourable business enabling environment. Such an improving business climate and growing economy makes Belgrade an even more important regional business centre and, as such, an even more attractive location for all future business development.