IKEA is to open a new kitchen and bedroom store in Lancashire.

The Plan & Order point, to be located in Preston, will provide free, one-to-one consultations with experienced IKEA kitchen and bedroom planners.

The opening follows the launches of both 'online planning' and 'in-home planning', alongside ‘collect near you’ points across the region.

The Preston store will form part of IKEA's further expansion in the North West, with two more Plan & Order Points earmarked for Aintree and Stockport.

The initiative comes as part of the retailer’s ongoing transformation to make it easier and more accessible to shop with IKEA.

As a complement to the bigger IKEA stores, the Plan & Order Points will provide customers with a free, bespoke design consultation with experienced IKEA kitchen and bedroom storage experts.

The focus will be on bespoke kitchen and wardrobe designs, although customers will be able to get help planning any room in their home.

The units, located in retail parks and shopping centres, will be sized between 70–90sqm, showcase around five kitchen and wardrobe solutions as well as having a consultation area.

Although much smaller than a standard IKEA store, the units will be packed with information, samples, tools and specialist knowledge needed to plan a kitchen or bedroom storage solution.

There will be no products to take away or food for sale on site - instead, customer orders will be transported to the customer’s home, or made available for collection to another convenient point of delivery.

Deputy country retail manager, IKEA UK & Ireland, Marsha Smith, said: “Our investment in the North West is part of our long-term plan to transform our retail business, making it easier for our customers to shop with us in a number of convenient ways.

"With a variety of stores, service offers and digital solutions that complement each other, our aim is to be there for our customers, however, they want to meet us.

“Our expert co-workers will be available to help the customers to plan affordable kitchens or bedrooms – helping our customers to create a better everyday life at home.

"We offer a full complement of affordable services including finance, installation and assembly.”

Alongside the new openings, IKEA is expanding its fulfilment network in the North West.

Last month, they announced the launch of several ‘collect near you’ points, located within select Tesco car parks in close proximity of the new Plan & Order points, enabling faster, cheaper and more sustainable customer deliveries.

IKEA has also invested in online and in-home planning services. This enables customers to either plan their kitchen or bedroom together with an IKEA co-worker online or have a co-worker come to their home and plan it from there.

Customers will be able to shop at the new Plan & Order Points when they open this winter.

Appointments for the free service can be made online via the IKEA website and customers can shop the full IKEA product range online at ikea.co.uk.

The first IKEA store in the UK opened in Warrington 30 years ago and was later followed by a store in Ashton-under-Lyne.