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ஜThe founder of IKEA ஜThe Birth of IKEAஜThe IKEA business idea ஜIKEA timeline ஜThe IKEA organizationஜIKEA services ஜIKEA catalog cover archive

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The founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad

Ingvar Kamprad was born in the south of Sweden in 1926 and raised on a farm call ed Elmtaryd, near the small village of Agunnaryd. At an early age, he learned that he could buy matches in bulk from Stockholm and sell them at a fair price, but a good profit. He reinvested his profits and expanded to fish, seeds, Christmas tree decorations, and pens and pencils. At age 17, Kamprad's father gave him a nice reward for doing well in school. What did he spend it on? He founded IKEA.

The name IKEA was formed from Kamprad's initials (I.K.) plus the first letters of Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd, the farm and village where he grew up. He continued to expand his business to a variety of goods, including wallets, watches, jewelry and stockings. When he outgrew his ability to call on his customers individually, he converted to a sort of makeshift mail order operation, hiring the local milk van to make his deliveries.

ڱ The IKEA business idea is to offer a wide range of home furnishings with good design and function at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them.

ڱ Our business idea is based on a partnership with the customer. First we do our part. Our designers work with manufacturers to find smart ways to make furniture using existing production processes. Then our buyers look all over the world for good suppliers with the most suitable raw materials. Next, we buy in bulk — on a global scale — so that we can get the best deals, and you can get the lowest price.

ڱ   Then you do your part. Using the IKEA catalogue and visiting the store, you choose the furniture yourself and pick it up at the self-serve warehouse. Because most items are packed flat, you can get them home easily, and assemble them yourself. This means we don't charge you for things you can easily do on your own.

♣ 1926 The founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad .Even as a young boy, Ingvar knew that he wanted to develop a business. He started by selling matches to neighbors from his bicycle. He found that he could buy matches in bulk very cheaply from Stockholm and sell them individually at a very low price but still make a good profit.

♣ In 1943, when Ingvar was 17, his father gave him a gift for succeeding in his studies. The gift was used to establish his own business. The name IKEA was formed from the founder's initials (I.K.) plus the first letters of Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd, the farm and village where he grew up. IKEA originally sold pens, wallets, picture frames, table runners, watches, jewellery and nylon stockings—whatever Ingvar found a need for that he could fill with a product at a reduced price.

♣ 1945 The first IKEA advertisements appear in local newspapers.

♣ 1947 Furniture is introduced into the IKEA product range.♣ 1951 The first IKEA furniture catalogue is published.♣ 1953 The IKEA range focused to home furnishing products

in the early 1950s. The opening of the showroom was an important moment in the development of the IKEA concept. For the first time customers could see and touch our furnishings before ordering. This came about as a solution to a problem. By opening the showroom, IKEA could in three dimensions present its products with function, quality and low price. And people did just what IKEA had hoped: they wisely chose the products with the best value for the money.

♣ 1955 IKEA begins designing its own furniture.

♣ 1956 IKEA begins testing flat packages. For the customer, this means lower priced products and easy transportation home. But all of this began carefully, one product at a time.

♣ 1958 The first IKEA store is inaugurated in Älmhult.6,700 square metres of home furnishings! At the time, it was the largest furniture display in Scandinavia.

♣ 1959 Gillis Lundgren—the fourth employee at IKEA—designs TORE, possibly our biggest sales success ever.

♣ 1963 The first IKEA store in Norway opens outside Oslo. This was also our first store not located in Sweden.

♣ 1965 The IKEA store in Stockholm is opened. The success created huge capacity problems in serving the customers. By opening the warehouse and letting people serve themselves, an important part of the IKEA concept was born.

♣ 1969 The first IKEA store opens in Denmark.♣ 1973 The first store outside Scandinavia is opened outside

Zurich, Switzerland.

♣ 1974 The first IKEA store opens in Munich, Germany.♣ 1975 The first IKEA store in Australia opens.♣ 1976 The first IKEA store opens in Canada.♣ The first IKEA store opens in the Netherlands.♣ 1981 The first IKEA store opens in France.♣ The first IKEA store in Belgium is opened.♣ 1985 The first IKEA store opens in the USA. At first, we

weren’t sure the USA needed IKEA. After all, what could we bring to the country that has everything? But we discovered there is a need everywhere for useful, attractive home furnishings at prices for every wallet.

♣ 1987 The first IKEA store in the UK opens.♣ 1989 The first IKEA store opens in Italy.♣ 1990 The first IKEA stores in Hungary and Poland opens.♣ 1991 The first IKEA stores opens in Czech Republic and

United Arab Emirates.♣ 1993 IKEA reaches 114 stores in 25 countries.

♣ 1995 DAGIS kids’ chair, by Richard Clack, is born.He obviously took a long, hard look at kids before he designed it. Children do not have sharp corners, they are fairly soft but can stand up to a little rough and tumble now and again. They are cheeky but cute and they just love the hurly-burly of child-hood. In this spirit, he designed his chair for children. And then he added one little improvement. As far as we know, children do not yet come in stackable versions to save space and facilitate moving them. DAGIS, on the other hand, does.

♣ 1996 The first IKEA store opens in Spain.♣ 1997 IKEA introduces Children’s IKEA.Play areas, childre

n’s room settings, baby areas, special meals in the restaurant and still more play areas make IKEA a place kids love to visit.

♣ 1998 IKEA opens its first store in China.♣ 1999 IKEA numbers 53,000 co-workers across a global netw

ork of over 150 stores in 29 countries on four continents.♣ 2000 The first IKEA store opens in Russia.

The founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad, has been eager to create an ownership structure and organization that stand for long-term independence and security. The IKEA Group is owned by a foundation, Stitching INGKA Foundation , which is registered in the Netherlands. The foundation owns INGKA Holding B.V. the parent company for all IKEA Group companies - from the industrial group Sherwood to the sales companies that own the stores in the various countries. Inter IKEA Systems B.V., the owner of the IKEA concept and trademark, has franchising agreements with every IKEA store in the world. The IKEA Group is the biggest franchisee of Inter IKEA Systems B.V.

We offer a full range of services to

make your IKEA experience more

complete:

Assembly services

IKEA business

IKEA restaurant/cafe

Return policy

Children’s services