Inside the new Ikea

9:00am Sunday 21st September 2008

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IT’S taken nearly ten years to become a reality but within just a few short months IKEA will finally open its doors in Southampton. It will be one of the largest stores in the UK, with 32,000 square metres of retail space (roughly half the size of WestQuay).And as the credit crunch takes hold, the Southampton store will be the last to be built in this country for some time (only the Dublin store will open after Southampton.) With up to 20,000 customers a day expected at weekends, the store – selling affordable furniture and the covetable cushions, curtains and accessories necessary for a trendy lifestyle – is set to be a mecca for cost-conscious consumers.

When the Swedish company first confirmed they were coming to Southampton back in 2000, they were ready to make their home on the former Calor Gas site in Millbrook.

But after years of planning wrangles, agreement was reached over the West Quay location that will finally be home.

For years, fans of the store were forced to wait patiently for news of when work would begin. At times it seemed the city might lose out to neighbouring Portsmouth, when IKEA announced they had bought land there in readiness. Even when we were certain it was coming to Southampton there were setbacks (the store was due to open in April this year).

The shell of the iconic blue building is now taking shape – and overseeing the project is Jo Rymill, IKEA's UK project leader.

It’s the first major project for the diminuitive blond with a disarming smile, who is equally at home in the office surrounded by swatches and paint colours or ankle deep in mud down on the West Quay building site.

Striding around the concrete shell of the enormous store Jo, 40, is fizzing with excitement over the development – like all good designers, she has the foresight to see how it will look when the builders move out in December and the painstaking work of shopfitting begins.

She embodies the IKEA brand with her effervescent enthusiasm and captivating sense of humour – and she is clearly loving the challenge of bringing the project in on time and within budget.

“Southampton is my baby – and it's brilliant to be involved in such a major project.

“It's not been without its challenges – at our store in Coventry which has just opened they needed 400 piles in the ground to support the store, here we've got 2,500 because it's built on reclaimed land.

“We've also had to watch out for bombs left over from the Second World War but touch wood we haven't come across any,” she said.

Jo was brought up on work-sites – her father is a builder and he started work on the family home when Jo was six-years-old. There were no soppy toys for her. The space where her dolls should have nestled in a pram was taken up by breeze blocks and pavers as Jo helped to move 5,000 of the building blocks of their home.

“My whole life has been spent on a building site. My father started work on the house when I was six and it went on untili was 21.

“I've now got a house in Ramsgate with my partner and that's a building site too – my living room has got two roll top cast iron baths in the middle of it that are waiting to be plumbed in – we are living in one room,” she said.

Jo has worked for IKEA for 12 years. Her background is in textiles and she started out as an interior designer with the company. She has been responsible for creating the inspirational room sets – especially the children's rooms and loved the chance to let her imagination run wild.

But when she had the opportunity to move into management and take on responsibility for the Southampton development, she jumped at the chance.

Undaunted by splitting her time between the retail offices that have a temporary home in Southampton Docks and the building site, where hundreds of men are working on the construction, Jo explained she felt really comfortable in this macho world.

“I love working with blokes – I'm not a particularly girly-girl.I find men's humour and language easier and if I had to dress up to go to work it would be a nightmare,” she said.