Swedish giant: Ikea's new Ballymun superstore is set to see 1,000 customers per hour on Monday

Fears that Irish shoppers have no appetite for the new furniture superstore Ikea have been undermined by a world record take at the company's Friends and Family Day held in advance of this week's opening.

Around 3,000 people invited by the company's 500 strong workforce to preview the new Ballymun based superstore last week spent a total of €240,000 over the course of just six hours.

Ordinarily, the Swedish superstore would expect to take in around €120,000 on a day when customers are offered a 15% discount on everything they buy. The Dublin haul is the most that an Ikea has ever taken on a Friends and Family day at any of its 301 stores worldwide. A spokesman for the company said that they had been "surprised" at the record sales achieved on the day.

The take will offer some comfort to Ikea management who last week admitted that they would have reconsidered locating here had the company not been so far advanced in its plans when the recession hit. The store arrives in the Republic in the midst of one of the toughest periods furniture retailers have ever seen. The value of sales of furniture and lighting had fallen 46% year on year to May according to the most recent CSO figures.

Ikea is expected to attract more than 1,000 customers per hour when it opens on Monday. Some prices are currently higher than the Belfast store but the company says that this will be rectified when its new catalogue is published in August. The store is the biggest ever seen in Ireland at 31,500sq m over two floors with legislation changed to allow Fingal County Council grant planning permission for the mammoth project. The council has opted to allow the store to open even though the upgrading of the Ballymun interchange required under planning permission will not be ready until October.