The first Irish franchise of an Australian shop specialising in storage products will open in Carrickmines, Dublin on May 24th.
Olive Donovan, a former senior investment manager with Bank of Ireland, has acquired the master franchise for Howards Storage World and hopes to open 16 outlets by 2012.
Internationally Howards specialises in space saving and organisational products for home and office use.
Ms Donovan said the concept would "sit close to an Ikea" but would be smaller in scale.
Estimated costs for a franchisee include a franchise fee and fit out and stock costs in the region of €350,000 to €600,000.