Gov. Gregoire celebrates grand opening of IKEA distribution center

September 17, 2008

AS WRITTEN

Good morning, and thank you Keith ( President of IKEA North America) for the introduction.

It�s wonderful to be part of the Grand Opening of IKEA�s new distribution center.

It�s one more sign that Pierce County and Washington State are Open for Business!

By the way, a few months ago Mike and I loaded the whole family into the car and went shopping at IKEA with my youngest daughter � Michelle.

We bought furniture for her new apartment in Seattle. Then we spent hours putting it together and finished up with a great family pizza and wine party.

That was a real IKEA day for the Gregoire family.

And today�s a real IKEA Day for Pierce County and our economy!

I�m impressed that -- just like IKEA�s great furniture � this facility is state of the art!

I�m intrigued by the 11-story silo that can hold and sort up to 80,000 pallets of IKEA products. What a cutting-edge way to improve efficiency and use far less space!

IKEA�s $75 million investment in this new facility is one more vote of confidence in the economy of Washington and one more indication that smart businesses know what this state offers.

And of course, I�m very pleased that this new facility comes with 125 new jobs. It�s scores of events just like this one that has given our state 225,000 more jobs in the last four years.

I�m also pleased to note that in building this facility, IKEA was able to cut the cost because it benefitted from our construction sales tax exemption for such facilities.

This distribution center � which will serve the Northwest, Western Canada and stretch as far south as Utah � is here in part because of it�s proximity to the Port of Tacoma.

And the Port of Tacoma in turn is one of big engines that drives Washington�s economy with imports of products like IKEA�s and export of airplanes, software and other products made right here at home.

On behalf of all Washingtonians let me congratulate Keith, all the great employees of IKEA, and Pierce County on this happy day.