IKEA

IKEA International Group

Company type	Private
Industry	Retail (Specialty)
Founded	1943 in Älmhult, Småland, Sweden
Headquarters	Leiden, South Holland, The Netherlands
Key people	Ingvar Kamprad, Founder Anders Dahlvig, President Hans Gydell, VP
Products	self-assembly furniture, See section on products
Revenue	$15.425B USD ( 24%) (FY 2004)
Number of employees	100,000 (2006)
Website	www.ikea.com

IKEA is a privately held international low cost home furnishings retailer. The retailer was founded in Sweden, but is owned by a Dutch-registered foundation, controlled by the Kamprad family. Inter IKEA Systems B.V. is the owner/franchiser of the IKEA trademark and the IKEA Concept. It is a Dutch-registered company, with offices in the Netherlands, Sweden and Belgium.

General overview

The company distributes its goods through its retail outlets, which sell contemporary furniture; IKEA follows the unconventional but often-copied principle that most of its furniture and accessories are made with the idea that the purchasers assemble the goods themselves.

Flags at the store in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The chain has 247 stores in 34 countries; most of them in Europe, the rest in the United States, Canada, Asia and Australia. More than 20 stores opened during 2005. IKEA is one of the few store chains to have locations both in Israel and in other Middle Eastern nations.

IKEA is generally pronounced IPA: [iˈke.a] but in many English-speaking regions, it is pronounced IPA: [aɪˈkiːə] rhyming with the word "idea". In addition, it is generally pronounced IPA: [iˈki.a] in Taiwan and China with a Chinese name Yíjīa(宜家).

The IKEA Catalogue, containing about 12,000 products, is printed in 180 million copies (2006) worldwide, and distributed free of charge, through mail and stores worldwide. The IKEA Catalogue appears to meet or exceed the Bible (estimated at 53 to 100 million copies) in number of copies printed annually.

History

IKEA was founded in Älmhult, Sweden in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad, then 17. The company name is a composite of the first letters in his name in addition to the first letters of the names of the property and the village in which he grew up: Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd. This acronym is incidentally similar to the Greek word οικία [oikia] (home) and to the Finnish word oikea (correct, right).

Originally, IKEA sold pens, wallets, picture frames, table runners, watches, jewelry and nylon stockings or practically anything Kamprad found a need for that he could fill with a product at a reduced price. Furniture was first added to the IKEA product range in 1947 and, in 1955, IKEA began to design its own furniture. The company motto is: "Affordable Solutions for Better Living".

At first, Kamprad sold his goods out of his home and by mail order, but eventually a store was opened in the nearby town of Älmhult. It was also the location for the first IKEA "warehouse" store which came to serve as a model for IKEA establishments elsewhere and on March 23, 1963, the first store outside Sweden was opened in Asker, a Norwegian municipality outside Oslo.

Products

IKEA furniture is well known for its modern, utilitarian design. Also, because much of it is self-assembly furniture (also known as "flat-pack"), it is designed to be assembled by the consumer rather than being sold pre-assembled. IKEA claims this permits them to reduce costs and use of packaging by not shipping air; the volume of a bookcase, for example, is considerably less if it is shipped unassembled rather than assembled. This is also a practical point for many of the chain's European customers, where public transport is commonly used; the flat-pack distribution methods allows for easier transport via public transport from the store to a customer's home for assembly.

File:SWE Ikea.jpg

IKEA in Kungens Kurva, just south of Stockholm, Sweden

IKEA contends that it has been a pioneering force in sustainable approaches to mass consumer culture. Kamprad refers to the concept as "democratic design," meaning that the company applies an integrated approach to manufacturing and design (see also environmental design). In response to the explosion of human population and material expectations in the 20th and 21st century, the company implements economies of scale, capturing material streams and creating manufacturing processes that hold costs and resource use down, such as the extensive use of particle board. The intended result is flexible, adaptable home furnishings, scalable both to larger homes and smaller dwellings.

IKEA has also expanded their product base to include flat-pack houses, in an effort to cut prices involved in a first-time buyer's home. The product, named BoKlok was launched in Sweden in 1996 in a joint venture with Skanska. Now working in the Nordic countries and in UK, sites confirmed in England include London, Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool.

Although IKEA household products and furniture are Swedish designed, they are produced in developing countries to hold down costs. Very little production actually takes place in Sweden.

Product names

IKEA products are identified by single word names. Most of the names are either Swedish, Danish, Finnish or Norwegian in origin. Although there are some notable exceptions, most product name are based on a special naming system developed by IKEA.

• Upholstered furniture, coffee tables, rattan furniture, bookshelves, media storage, doorknobs: Swedish placenames (for example: Klippan)
• Beds, wardrobes, hall furniture: Norwegian placenames
• Dining tables and chairs: Finnish placenames
• Bookcase ranges: Occupations
• Bathroom articles: Scandinavian lakes, rivers and bays
• Kitchens: grammatical terms, sometimes also other names
• Chairs, desks: men's names
• Materials, curtains: women's names
• Garden furniture: Swedish islands
• Carpets: Danish placenames
• Lighting: terms from music, chemistry, meteorology, measures, weights, seasons, months, days, boats, nautical terms
• Bedlinen, bedcovers, pillows/cushions: flowers, plants, precious stones; words related to sleep, comfort, and cuddling
• Children's items: mammals, birds, adjectives
• Curtain accessories: mathematical and geometrical terms
• Kitchen utensils: foreign words, spices, herbs, fish, mushrooms, fruits or berries, functional descriptions
• Boxes, wall decoration, pictures and frames, clocks: colloquial expressions, also Swedish placenames

For example, DUKTIG (meaning: good, well-behaved) is a line of children's toys, OSLO is a name of a bed, JERKER (a Swedish masculine name) is a popular desk, DINERA for tableware, KASSETT for media storage. One range of office furniture is named EFFEKTIV.

A notable exception is the IVAR shelving system, which dates back to the early 1970s. This item is named after the item's designer.

Because IKEA is a world-wide company working in several countries with several different languages, sometimes the Nordic naming leads to problems where the word means something completely different to the product. A well known example was the bed frame GUTVIK: in German-speaking countries, it can be translated in “good performing sex”.

Company founder Ingvar Kamprad, who is dyslexic, found that naming the furniture with proper names and words, rather than a product code, made the names easier to remember.

Store format

An IKEA Store in Singapore

Newer IKEA stores are usually very large blue boxes with few windows. They are often designed around a "one-way" layout which leads customers along "the natural way". This layout is designed to encourage the customer to see the store in its entirety (as opposed to a traditional retail store, which allows a consumer to go right to the section that the goods and services needed are displayed). The sequence involves going through furniture showrooms, housewares (market-hall), then the warehouse where one collects flatpacks for products seen in the showrooms, and then arrive at the cashier's station to make payment.

Whilst the original design involved the warehouse on the lower level and the showroom and markethall on the upper, some stores are single-level bungalow-style stores while many U.S. and Canadian stores and all German stores place the showroom upstairs and the marketplace and warehouse both downstairs. Some stores maintain separate warehouses to allow more stock to be kept on-site at any given time, although this occasionally results in challenges in finding the items, as well as a perception of having to queue in line twice.

Many stores include restaurants serving typically Swedish food, and beverages such as lingonberry juice. The restaurant area is usually the one place in the store where there are large windows. Outside of Scandinavia, these restaurants are sometimes complemented by mini-shops selling Swedish-made, Swedish-style groceries. As would be expected with IKEA, you can buy IKEA's specialities, such as Swedish meatballs, in parts (i.e. the ingredients) at these stores and assemble it (that is, simple, straightforward food preparation) at home.

Most IKEA stores also offer an "as-is" area at the end of the warehouse just prior to the cashiers. Returned, damaged and formerly showcased products which are not in "as new" condition are displayed here, and sold with a discount, but also with a "no-returns" policy. In the United Kingdom, this is referred to as "Bargain Corner".

In Hong Kong, where shop space is limited and costly, IKEA has opened four outlets across the city, which are actually part of conveniently located shopping malls. They are relatively tiny, compared to common "large blue box" store design, yet most of them are still in the "one-way" layout. However, the newest outlet in Telford Plaza does not follow this template, and the three independent floors can be accessed freely from each. Following IKEA tradition, though, the only cashier is located on the lowest floor.

Catalogue

File:IKEA Catalogue US2007.jpg

Cover of the 2007 edition US Catalogue

IKEA annually publishes a popular mail-order catalogue. First published in Swedish in 1951, the catalogue is now published each summer in 46 different editions, in 23 languages for 32 countries, and is considered to be the main marketing tool of the retail giant, consuming 70% of the company's annual marketing budget. In terms of publishing quantity, the catalogue has surpassed the Bible as the most published work, estimated 174 million copies (2006) worldwide, triple that of the less materialistic counterpart; however since the catalogue is free of charge, the Bible continues to be the most purchased non-fiction work. In Europe alone the catalogue reaches more than 200 million people annually. Containing over 300 pages and about 12,000 products, it is distributed both in stores and by mail. Most of the catalogue is produced by IKEA Catalogue Services AB in IKEA's hometown of Älmhult, Sweden where IKEA operates the the largest photo studio in northern Europe at 8,000 square meters in size. The catalogue itself is printed on chlorine-free paper of 10-15% post-consumer waste.

According to Canadian broadcaster, CTV, "IKEA's publications have developed an almost cult-like following online. Readers have found all kinds of strange tidbits, including mysterious cat pictures, apparent Mickey Mouse references and weird books wedged into the many shelves that clutter the catalogues." A facebook group even celebrates the male dog found in the 2007 catalogue .

IKEA also publishes and sells a regular style magazine, titled IKEA Family Live in thirteen languages which supplements the catalogue. An English language edition for the United Kingdom has been announced for February 2007 and is expected to launch with a subscription of over 500,000.

Corporate structure

Bloomington, MN, USA

Despite IKEA's Swedish roots, the owner/franchiser of the IKEA trademark and concept is a Dutch-registered company, Inter IKEA Systems. The operator/franchisee of the majority of the stores worldwide is a separate entity, the IKEA Group, a private group of companies owned by a Dutch charitable foundation.

Of the 247 IKEA stores in 34 countries, 219 are run by the IKEA Group. The remaining 28 stores are run by franchisees outside of the IKEA Group.

INGKA Holding is the ultimate parent company for all IKEA companies, including the industrial group Swedwood but excluding Inter IKEA Systems. INGKA Holding is wholly owned by the Stichting INGKA Foundation, which is a charitable foundation registered in the Netherlands. In May 2006, the business magazine The Economist reported that the foundation was the world's wealthiest charity with a net worth estimated at exceeding US$36 billion (more than the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), although the foundation's purpose is largely corporate tax-avoidance and anti-takeover protection for IKEA.

Community impact

IKEA's goals of sustainability and environmental design in their merchandise have sometimes been at odds with the challenges that the impact a new IKEA store can have on a community.

IKEA stores are not commonplace, particularly in the United States, where consumers anticipate a retail outlet to be fairly accessible and have a number of locations. While the stores draw consumers from far and wide, the traffic and congestion impact of a store on a particular community can be a challenge.

IKEA Barkarby, Stockholm, Sweden

• When an IKEA opened in April 2000 in Emeryville, California, the traffic was so severe that traffic lights had no effect. Emeryville police were forced to manually direct traffic daily for three months.
• When an IKEA opened in Tempe, Arizona in November 2004, the traffic jams on Interstate 10 were so severe that the Arizona Department of Public Safety had to close the nearest off-ramp to the store just to spread out the traffic among other nearby off-ramps.
• IKEA's most popular store in Brent Park, London frequently has traffic jams on the weekends.
• A new store opened in Edmonton, North London at midnight on 10 February 2005. It attracted over 6,000 visitors due to huge opening discounts in the first three opening hours and resulted in a number of casualties as people were crushed in the rush to get into the store. The store was closed after only 30 minutes (due to the large number of customers, there were inadequate security staff and police). The store was re-opened at 5pm on 11 February2005 with no additional incident.
• In Saudi Arabia three people were crushed to death in September 2004 when IKEA offered a limited number of free $150 vouchers. The IKEA store in Jeddah used to be a popular place for flirting for unmarried couples, a practice strictly forbidden by Saudi rigorous religious law. The religious police would then frequently raid the IKEA store to lecture patrons or chastise what is considered indecent or inappropriate behaviours.

IKEA at Atlantic Station in Atlanta, GA.

• The Stoughton, Massachusetts store opened on 9 November 2005. Nearby highways were at a standstill; approaching the store from less than 1 mile took upwards of an hour. IKEA employees indicated that on the first Saturday of operation, the Stoughton store would have sales of $1-1.2M. Over 300,000 visitors were expected on the first weekend of operation.
• IKEA was vetoed planning permission for a further store in England in 2004 (to be based in Stockport in Greater Manchester) by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. It applied for judicial review but lost in 2005. However, they later received permission to build a store in Ashton-Under-Lyne (Greater Manchester).
• IKEA announced it would open its first city centre store in Coventry, UK in 2007 and hopes to create over 500 jobs. There are concerns that the outlet will cause traffic gridlock in the city.
• A store that opened in Canton Township, Michigan (a suburb of Detroit) in June 2006 caused traffic jams for hours and experienced a huge crunch of people when it opened. [1]
• The IKEA megastore currently under construction (as of 2005) in Brooklyn, New York is dividing the community. The section of Brooklyn where the store is being constructed is located in the neighborhood of Red Hook, which is notably isolated from major transportation arteries. IKEA is attempting to mollify critics with ferry service from lower Manhattan island, increased and extended city bus service, as well as their own shuttle service to the nearest local subway stops (see below). IKEA Brooklyn is going to be the largest IKEA in the world, and local residents of Red Hook have cited such concerns as: Traffic congestion, noise, sound, air, and waste pollution, decrease in property values, among others. IKEA contends that it has factored in all these issues and that, traffic as simulated, will not be an issue, plans for pollution control are in the works, and that development plans for the 22 acre site on Beard Street will revitalize the neighborhood and increase property values. Concerns about IKEA's "hasty" destruction of historically significant buildings on and around the site were also raised.

Despite many negative impacts, there are some positive roles that IKEA plays in the local and global community.

• All UK IKEA stores support world wide children's charities such as UNICEF and Save the Children [2].
• Partnering with UNICEF, IKEA has established over 100 "bridge schools" to enable children to join the mainstream educational system in India. Liberia's schools have also recieved similar help [3].
• Like most international companies, when disaster relief is needed, IKEA responds with supplies and donations [4].
• IKEA UK also support a number of local schools, Scout & Guide groups, hospices such as the Little Havens Children's Hospice and various other children's charities through recycling, product donations, bag packing and on site collections.

Shuttle bus

As part of IKEA's global mandate to make their stores more convenient and accessible, and with community impact in mind, IKEA operates free shuttle buses at some of their stores, including:

• IKEA Etobicoke (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) - Ford E350 bus to and from store to Kipling (TTC) subway station
• IKEA North York (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) - Ford E350 bus to and from store to Leslie (TTC) subway station
• IKEA Richmond (Richmond, British Columbia, Canada) - bus to and from store to Airport Station [5]
• IKEA Elizabeth (New Jersey, USA) - Large tour bus (60+ passengers) to and from store on weekends to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan, New York City.
• IKEA Singapore (Singapore) - Coach (40+ passengers) from all corners of the island including Tampines, Ang Mo Kio and Bukit Timah
• IKEA Edmonton (North London, UK) - Small bus (25 passengers) to Tottenham Hale Tube station
• IKEA Nizhny Novgorod (Kstovo District, Russia) - bus to and from store to Maxim Gorky Square and to Avtozavodskaya subway station. [6]

Criticisms

Some criticisms of IKEA:

Villepinte, France

• IKEA has demolished historic buildings, in at least one case for a parking lot.
• In the 1990s, there were several complaints arising from IKEA's British television advertising campaigns:
  • “Stop being so English”: In which a “Swedish psychologist” claims the British are uptight due to their taste in “English” furniture (complaints were dismissed).
  • An advertisement where a management consultant suggests how much more furniture a company could buy, if it fired an office worker. (complaints were dismissed but IKEA voluntarily withdrew the advert)
  • A campaign under the slogan, "Just pack up, ship out, find a place of your own. And for all your new things, you know where to come. Make a fresh start," got complaints that it was trivializing marriage breakups. (complaints were dismissed)
  • An advertisement in which a boss tells members of his staff to smell each other's armpits.
• Difficulty in following the instructions for product assembly, which rely on pictures only. However, this is another way the company saves money. Pictures are printed instead of words that would require multiple translations due to IKEA's wide international presence.
• IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad was, as a teen, directly involved in the pro-Nazi New Swedish Movement (Nysvenska Rörelsen) until at least 1945, causing tensions when IKEA began opening stores in Israel. Kamprad devotes two chapters to his time in Nysvenska Rörelsen in his book, Leading By Design: The IKEA Story and, in a 1994 letter to IKEA employees, called his affiliation with the organization the "greatest mistake of his life."
• Ex-Norwegian prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik has criticized IKEA for not depicting women assembling furniture in its instruction booklets, despite the fact that many sets of instructions do, in fact, show women - though not often. The official explanation from IKEA is that depicting women at work assembling furniture could be construed as offensive in Muslim countries.
• In 2004 there was controversy about the law in Ireland, restricting the maximum size of a retail outlet. The law had previously stated that no shop may exceed 6,000 m² in size. When it was revealed IKEA had the intention to build a store in Dublin the law was put up for debate as 6,000 m² was deemed far too small. In the end the law was changed to allow for retail outlets selling durable goods to be built without a limit in designated areas (providing the building itself is approved by standard planning laws). The then Minister for the Enviroment came under fierce criticism for what was seen as changing the law to suit one company. He defended his decision citing that if they hadn't been changed, IKEA would have most likely built a store in Northern Ireland which would be used by customers from the Republic of Ireland anyway. This would have been undesirable as in that scenario, the VAT on the goods would end up going to the UK government.
• The 2007 IKEA catalog was involved in a controversy concerning a dog in the interior-front-cover photo apparently showing a surprisingly large and prominent human looking penis, prompting suggestions that the photo may have been deliberately "Photoshopped". IKEA Canada has denied this rumour and that the "object in question" is the dog's leg. BBC Radio 1 disc jokey Scott Mills also drew attention to this photograph while on-air. The picture was posted on his show's internet forum, and Mills requested speculation from his listeners, some of whom were allegedly in an IKEA store at the time, as to whether they thought anything was unusual about the picture.

Diversity

IKEA ran a commercial widely thought to be the first commercial featuring a gay couple. It aired only once, in 1994. [7] It has also had other commercials targeting the gay community, as well as a commercial featuring a transgendered woman. [8]

IKEA was also named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2004 and 2005 by Working Mothers magazine. It ranked 96 in Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2006.

Design reform

As pointed out by circuit lecturer Will Novosedlik, IKEA embodies the principles of design reform begun by William Morris and John Ruskin, insofar as the company seeks to elevate public taste by providing quality goods at affordable prices.

Popular Culture

Television

• Most of the sets of the science fiction series Babylon 5 contained IKEA components. One reason for this was to reduce the cost of set construction; Babylon 5's producers were proud of always filming episodes on time and under budget.

• Teams in one season of The Amazing Race had to visit the world's largest IKEA store in Sweden for a Detour task.

• In The Simpsons episode "Eight Misbehavin'," the family visits a blue and yellow store called "Shøp" with meatballs, Lego forks, and items named such things as Pöpli pencil holder. In it they meet a six-foot walking Hex key that explains how you put everything together yourself.

• In an episode of 2DTV, they made fun of former England national football team manager Sven-Göran Eriksson after he had an affair with a woman when he had an IKEA condom which he had to take out of a box and assemble much like the furniture in the store.

• In the episode of Futurama where Professor Farnsworth purchases a self-assembly supercollider from πkea (pi-kea), which subsequently explodes. Incidentally, the supercollider is delivered by a robot designed to look like an IKEA TV-stand (who almost completely falls apart on his way out after delivering the goods.)

πkea Robot: (leaving) Enjoy your affordable Swedish crap!
Bender: Finished! And only seven missing pieces!
Fry: Those Swedes sure know how to put in almost everything you need!

• IKEA was mentioned in an episode of the US sitcom Friends entitled "The One With all the Poker" in 1995:

Rachel: So basically, you get your ya-yas by taking money from all of your friends.
Ross: Yeah.
Chandler: Yes, and I get my ya-yas from IKEA. You have to put them together yourself, but they cost a little less.
(Chandler sits on rich guys couch)
Chandler: I-KEA this is comfortable...

• IKEA was also mentioned in another Friends episode entitled "The One With the Fertility Test." Phoebe pretends to be Swedish to avoid Rachel

Rachel: So, what’s your name?
Phoebe: It’s a normal Swedish name... IKEA...
Rachel: Oh... what an interesting name.
Phoebe: Ja!

• In the pilot episode of Clerks: The Animated Series, Leonardo Leonardo refuses to have his butler buying him an exclusive old fashioned desk in pro of an IKEA desk. He puts it together with ridiculous results.

• In the first episode of American Dad, Stan puts an order out for 2 million halogen lamps and 500 thousand coffee tables from IKEA, which will be sent to Iraq, to "refurnish" the country.

• IKEA products were heavily featured in the season premiere of Project Runway, season three. This included a metal ring chandelier decoration with leaves hanging off the sides (Laura Bennett), and a handwoven basket (Vincent's hat)

Film

• The IKEA furniture line was satirized in the movie Fight Club, as a fictional "Furnï" store featuring generically designed products lacking soul or substance in the greater context of humanity. Although the catalogs shown in the film state "Furni" Edward Norton's character actually says it is IKEA, and later Brad Pitt's character calls Norton "IKEA boy." In Chuck Palahniuk's novel, IKEA is mentioned but not Furni.
• The interiors of the homes in John Woo's film The Killer were furnished completely with IKEA items.
• IKEA furniture was heavily featured throughout the recent Swedish film The Ketchup Effect.
• In the Film Sugar and Spice when the characters recieve their guns they are not assembled. One of the characters then says, "He IKEA'd us."

Music

• IKEA is featured in a song of the same title by folk/rock singer Jonathan Coulton.
• Kanye West mentions buying a bed from IKEA in the song "Last Call":

Kanye: 'I unpacked all my shit. You know, we went to IKEA, I bought a bed, I put the bed together myself. I loaded up all my equipment, and the first beat I made was, uh, 'Heart of the City.'"

• In a song by the Arrogant Worms, entitled "Ezra Eats", about a little kid who eats everything, there is a line that mentions IKEA:

"We took him to IKEA, and while I sat on the benches, he ate a sofa named Bjorn and seven Allen wrenches"

• There is a Pavement song called "Date with IKEA".
• IKEA is a song by the musical comedian Mitch Benn who sings about them "conquering the world with our self assembly flat pack furniture".

Literature

• IKEA furniture is described as "semi-disposable Swedish furniture" in Microserfs by author Douglas Coupland.
• In the parody The Soddit, Biorn (a parody of Beorn who cannot actually transform into a bear, but believes that he can) is named after Björn Ulvaeus, speaks with constant references to ABBA songs, and whenever he is asked about his house explains it with IKEA-salesman-like zeal:

  "This chair. It is tinted clear lacquered solid beech with Wharg skin green-woven seat." ... "She may use my specially sharpened dining knife, with wooden handle and flower pattern twenty-seven..." ... "This shelf in bi-ply laminate with silver brackets, I was putting it up yesterday. I was doing this putting up the day before you came."

Art

• In 2003 the Austrian art group monochrom convinced a young man to have the IKEA logo tatooed on his upper arm.

Other

• In the pre-E3 Nintendo Press Conference Reggie Fils-Aime justified the Nintendo Wii name to be weird at first, just like what happened with Google or IKEA; this underscores how IKEA has become a household name.
• It is widely reported that one European in ten was conceived on an IKEA bed, although it is difficult to tell if this is simply a frequently repeated web legend.
• Internet cartoon characters Weebl and Bob, who have a fixation on pies, visit PIKEA, a similarly themed pie retailer.

Refurbishments

Australia

IKEA have recently refurbished their Australian Stores, in particular they have closed their IKEA Springwood Store in Brisbane, Queensland. They have opened a mega-store four times the size of the original at Slacks Creek, nearby suburb to Springwood. The new IKEA Logan opened 26 October 2006 and celebrated with opening specials and a new catalogue with promotional advertising materials for their new store. The catalogue was sent to their existing clientele in the Queensland state promoting their new and only mega-store within the Queensland Region. Similar new mega-stores and promotional ventures have taken place in New South Wales and Victoria stores, including closure of four existing IKEA Stores in Australia and opening two mega-stores in the appropriate States.

United Kingdom

Croydon, Warrington and Gateshead stores have recently undergone refurbishment to expand the store both internally and externally. Both of the latter stores have had mezzanine floors fitted to rehouse their showrooms, leaving the lower floors with expanded 'Self-Serve' areas and new customer restaurants.

IKEA's debut in each country

Year	Country	Location	Notes
1958	Sweden	Älmhult
1963	Norway	Asker (Nesbru)
1969	Denmark	Copenhagen(Ballerup)	Moved to Høje Tåstrup circa 1979
1973	Switzerland	Zürich(Spreitenbach)
1974	Germany	Munich(Eching)
1974	Japan	Kobe	This was a joint venture with a Japanese department store. It withdrew from the market in 1986 because of stagnant sales; an IKEA opened in Funabashi, Chiba in 2006 that included a distribution partnership with the Mitsubishi Corporation under the supervision of prominent account executive, Ai Kobayashi-Boswell
1975	Australia	Sydney(Artarmon)	Closed 2005, in preparation for a new & larger store in Rhodes which is now open and trading as of 2005/2006.
1975	Hong Kong	Kowloon(Tsim Sha Tsui)
1976	Canada	Halifax(Burnside Park)	This was a temporary North American market test store which closed in 1998. It was very successful. The first permanent store was built in Richmond, British Columbia later in 1976). Current number of stores: 11.
1977	Austria	Vienna (Vösendorf)
1978	Singapore	Sixth Avenue later Katong	Now at Queenstown with a new store is set to open in Tampines on November 30, 2006.
1978	The Netherlands	Sliedrecht
1980	Spain	Gran Canaria (Las Palmas)
1981	Iceland	Reykjavík	New store opened in Garðabær in October 2006, old store closed
1981	France	Paris (Bobigny)
1983	Saudi Arabia	Jeddah
1984	Belgium	Brussels (Zaventem and Ternat)
1984	Kuwait	Kuwait City
1985	United States	Philadelphia	(Plymouth Meeting)(This store has moved about 2 miles away to a larger location, and as of June 25, 2006, the first building sits empty)
1987	England	Warrington, Cheshire	This is considered their Manchester site although it isn't actually in Manchester. There have been 14 stores built since with the most recent in Ashton-under-Lyne, which is in Greater Manchester, opening in October 2006
1989	Italy	Milan (Cinisello Balsamo)
1990	Hungary	Budapest
1991	Poland	Warsaw
1991	Czech Republic	Prague (Zličín)
1991	United Arab Emirates	Dubai
1992	Slovakia	Bratislava
1994	Taiwan	Taipei
1996	Finland	Espoo
1996	Malaysia	Bandar Utama	Re-located to Mutiara Damansara in 2003
1998	China	Beijing
1999	Scotland	Edinburgh
2000	Russia	Moscow (Khimki)
2001	Israel	Netanya
2001	Greece	Thessaloniki
2003	Wales	Cardiff
2004	Portugal	Lisbon
2005	Turkey	Istanbul
2007	Romania	Bucharest	26,000 square meter store to open Spring 2007
2007 †	Ireland	Dublin (Ballymun)	Approved by the government. Store planned to open in 2007 († conditional on meeting local authority requirements)
	Northern Ireland	Belfast	IKEA awaiting planning permission for 29,000 square meter store.

See also

• List of Swedish companies

External links

Official sites

• IKEA - Official site
• How IKEA works
• IKEA UK website
• IKEA Australia Site
• Example of a shuttle schedule

Catalogue

• IKEA US catalogue - IKEA US catalogue splash
• IKEA Catalogue Remix - Music video using collage of 2003 catalogue
• IKEA Australia catalogue - IKEA Australia catalogue site

Criticisms

• IKEA Advertising Campaign
• Banned IKEA Commercial

Fan Sites

• Positive Fanatics - The Unofficial IKEA Web Journal
• OH, IKEA! - a weblog monitoring rumors regarding IKEA possibly coming to Ohio
• IKEA Fansite FAQ's and Photos primarily focusing on IKEA Kitchens
• IKEA Fansite Forums
• Find an IKEA store, get an IKEA Catalog
• Lyrics to Jonathan Coulton's 'IKEA'
• Less a fansite, more an opportunity for ideas

News coverage

• "The miracle of Älmhult" by Oliver Burkeman from the Guardian newspaper. The writer talks about his visit to IKEA's HQ in Älmhurt
• Private bus service opens door to `the other way' Is two-tier transit coming to Toronto?
• "IKEA: Flat-pack accounting". The Economist. 2006-05-11. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Business data for IKEA International A/S:
  • Google
  • Yahoo!