Bulgaria's 1st IKEA Store to Hire 130 Part-Time Workers

Several months before the opening of the first IKEA store in Bulgaria expected in the fall of 2011, the Fourlis Group, IKEA's franchisee for Bulgaria through its subsidiary House Market, announced the opening of 130 part-time jobs.

IKEA's store in Sofia is seeking service and administrative employees that can work shifts of 4 to 6 hours a day, the company said in a statement, stressing that its new demand of flexible labor will boost the labor market in the Bulgarian market and will create good opportunities for university students and people seeking a second job.

IKEA will enter the Bulgarian market in the fall of 2011 with the opening of the first of the two IKEA stores planned for the country. Fourlis's House Market SA already manages five IKEA stores in Greece and one in Cyprus.

Bulgaria's first IKEA store will be opened in Sofia in the last quarter of 2011, announced George Alevizos, Finance Manage of the Greek group of companies Fourlis in an interview for the Greek Survey of Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency) in 2010.

Alevizos told Novinite.com that Fourlis intended to open at least one more IKEA store to be located near the Black Sea city of Varna, and might also consider opening a third store within the next 5 years.

Fourlis is investing EUR 50 M in the construction of the first IKEA store in Bulgaria, which will employ about 350 people.