ITT helps IKEA grow its Swedish approach to shopping in Portugal

ITT Portugal has provided the pump technology and expertise to help IKEA establish a flagship furniture store in Matosinhos, Portugal. The store is the largest of its kind in Spain and Portugal, and one of the biggest IKEA has established in the world. Covering 36,600m2 the store offers 20,800m2 of product space for the company’s innovative and stylish products, and has cost more than 60m Euros to develop. The store has created work for more than 500 employees, saw 100,000 visitors in its first week – and 30,000 customers in its restaurant alone! The IKEA company forecasts 2 million visitors in the first year of activity, attracting Portuguese as well as many Spanish shoppers from the Galicia region. For this scale of operation it has been vital to implement a robust and efficient HVAC (Heat, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) and water distribution system. ITT Portugal has played a significant role in the project, supplying a range of pumping solutions. The water system is powered by an ITT hydraulic booster set with SV pumps, featuring the Hydrovar variable speed control for maximum energy efficiency. ITT pumps are also at the heart of the sewage stations with Robot pumps. The development does not stop there. IKEA will launch Matosinhos Plaza by the summer of 2008, which will become Europe’s largest commercial complex established by the IKEA Group at a cost of more than 165m Euros. The usable area will be 100,000m2 and ITT Portugal will be a serious candidate to become once again a partner of IKEA, while supplier of the hydraulic booster set, fire fighting booster set, HVAC and sewage.