Baker named store manager of first NYC IKEA
CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa. IKEA today announced that Mike Baker will serve as store manager for its first New York City store set to open this summer. The store will be located in Brooklyn's Red Hook neighborhood.
“I look forward to bringing the unique IKEA family-friendly shopping experience and wide selection of stylish, functional and affordable home furnishings closer to customers in the New York City area,” Baker said. “This store will offer our Brooklyn customers the opportunity to shop at IKEA as often as they would like, so I am pleased about providing them with a store of their own.”
The Brooklyn IKEA store will feature 50 different room settings, three model home interiors, a supervised children’s play area, and a 450-seat restaurant serving Swedish specialties such as meatballs with lingonberries or salmon plates, as well as American dishes, the company reported. The company said that 500 positions will be available at the store.
Baker joined IKEA in June 1994 as a marketplace sales manager at the Toronto-area store in North York, Ontario after serving as store manager for two other Canadian chains and two additional U.S. retailers. In 1996, he was appointed showroom manager, and the next year spent several months in China building-up IKEA Shanghai before returning to Toronto. In 1998, he joined the team expanding IKEA Burlington, the 2nd Toronto-area IKEA store. Then, in 2001, he helped lead the effort to open IKEA Etobicoke, the 3rd Toronto-area IKEA store, where he served as store manager until becoming store manager of IKEA Brooklyn.