The new CEO of Ikea Iberia for Spain and Portugal, Tolga Öncü, told Spanish economic newspaper Expansión on Monday about his plans for expanding the company, including more jobs and double the stores.

“We see growth potential in all of Spain, so it's not a short-term plan, but a long-term one,” Öncü explained. “Right now we have 16 stores in Spain and pickup points and by 2025, we hope that there will be double the opportunities to physically buy from Ikea.”

Öncü added that while currently the Swedish home goods giant has stores within an hour drive of 65 percent of the Spanish population, he hopes that in the next ten years they can reach 80 percent.

The company plans to invest €1 billion and create 1,700 direct and 14,000 indirect jobs by 2020.

Two years ago when the company posted an online questionnaire for job applicants at a new store in Alfafar, Valencia, the thousands of eager job-seekers crashed Ikea's servers.

Sales at Ikea in Spain totaled more than €1.2 billion in the past year, with nearly 40 million visits to the stores. 

The company has invested €700 million in the Spanish market over the past five years and opened seven new facilities.

“There is a more optimistic perception of the future and now Spaniards are doing the kind of shopping that had stopped in recent years,” Öncü said. “Spain is a very important market to us and there is a relationship of love between the company and Spain and we see a lot of potential business.”