The deputy prime minister, Paulo Portas said today in Loulé that the financial investment by the IKEA Group in the Algarve is "one of the greatest of this legislature" and from the point of view job creation "is the largest of recent years."
Portas, always keen to ally himself to 'feel good factor' projects which he has had nothing to do with creating, popped up in the Algarve today to pose for the press and wield a spade at the ground breaking ceremony in a field near Loulé.
Portas started the day at the Loulé council chambers for speeches before the ritual laying of the foundation stone for the new IKEA store near the white elephant Algarve Stadium.
The IKEA store is just a part of a huge development that includes a shopping mall and stores where an alleged ‘3,000 direct and indirect jobs’ will have be created by the time the whole place finally is running in late 2017. The IKEA store itself should open before the other shops in early 2017.
The original target opening date was for 2014 so the anti-IKEA associations did manage to delay investment in this area for three years.
Portas has never been troubled with problems of self-image or self-promotion and by the end of his speech most of the assembled were convinced that is was he, single handedly, that had done the €200 million IKEA deal.
The deputy Prime Minister said that the Swedish store will create 250 jobs in Loulé and "many others in the shops and at the shopping center," and that the group has established partnerships with Portuguese suppliers, particularly with three furniture factories, a porcelain factory which will produce tableware, and a mattress maker, none of which are in the Algarve.
Local business group ACRAL is still plotting to overthrow the evil IKEA brand which it worries will sweep ACRAL's more inefficient members onto the scrap heap of failed enterprises, exposed as they will be to the fierce light of competition in areas such as furniture, home furnishings and kitchens where high prices have been the norm for decades.
"IKEA came to Portugal to work with Portuguese suppliers and with quality Portuguese companies," said the minister who alluded to IKEA’s environmental credentials and reputation for social responsibility, especially with children referring perhaps to the miniscule contribution the company is making to the council to fix a school roof in 'thanks' for planning permission.
The deputy prime minister thanked those who had worked to get this investment for the Algarve and had "overcame obstacles" – referring to the nightmare of bureaucracy and red tape that the group had been put through.
Present at the ceremony was Frenchman, Richard Vathaire, Managing Director - Southern Europe for Inter IKEA Centre Group*, who said that the construction of the store in the Algarve "is a clear sign that the group believes in Portugal."
Vathaire's comment does indeed show that despite 'local difficulties' with bureaucracy, red tape, lawyers, courts, councils, environmentalists and business associations, with patience and a large legal budget these projects can be bulldozed through at minimal additonal cost.
The laughably low payback from IKEA for the €200 million investment was a contribution to improvements to a local school and to pay for some link roads that the developer would have had to fund anyway to enable people to reach IKEA's new store.
Amid the flurry of headlines about injunctions and environmental damage, IKEA quietly has managed to avoid spending the usual percentage payable by developers for local social projects.
This shows Loulé council's naïveté at the negotiation table but the project started so long ago that memories are vague as to who exactly was in charge back then...
* 'IKEA Centres' is IKEA Group’s global shopping centre company which develops and manage retail destinations anchored by IKEA stores.
Comments
Nothing too obvious as they are in kit form but perhaps a POÄNG rocking-chair ? Or maybe one or more of these to convince Mrs P. he really was there at Loulé and was not Ashley Maddisoning. So maybe a Henriksdal, a Enriksdal, an Ektorp, a Karlstad or even a Kivic.