Ikea Wikipedia (2024)

FAQs

What does IKEA mean in Swedish? ›

IKEA is the name of a popular Scandinavian-founded, worldwide furniture store. The acronym that makes up the name stands for Ingvar Kamprad (the founder's name), Elmtaryd (the farm where the founder grew up), and Agunnaryd (the founder's hometown). Related words: big-box store.

Inter IKEA Holding B.V. (also known as Inter IKEA Group) is a holding company registered in the Netherlands, ultimately owned by Interogo Foundation. It owns the company Inter IKEA Systems and thereby controls the intellectual property of IKEA. It is also in charge of design, manufacturing and supply of IKEA products.

The IKEA story began in the Swedish town of Älmhult in the 1940s, with an enterprising boy who hoped to improve the lives of people everywhere. Here you follow the development of IKEA, decade for decade.

IKEA began operations in the U.S. in 1985, when the retailer opened its first U.S. store in Plymouth Meeting, Pa. IKEA spent almost $2 million to promote the store's opening, the New York Times reported in 1986.

Sweden. Under its “Naming Law,” which regulates what first names are acceptable to give babies, Sweden blocked Ikea, Veranda, Superman, Elvis and Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116 (pronounced Albin, of course).

Moving from Sweden to Switzerland

In order to avoid wealth taxes in Sweden, Kamprad moved from Sweden to Switzerland in 1973, where he spent more than 40 years building the IKEA-empire.

Inter IKEA Systems B.V., trading as IKEA (/aɪˈkiːə/ eye-KEE-ə, Swedish: [ɪˈkêːa]), is a Swedish multinational conglomerate that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture, kitchen appliances, decoration, home accessories, and various other goods and home services.

The biggest IKEA store is Pasay City, Philippines.

In June 2015, Kamprad was listed as the eighth wealthiest person in the world in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with an estimated net worth of $58.7 billion. Forbes reported Kamprad's net worth as of March 2015 to be $3.5 billion.

Many Swedes are proud of IKEA, which currently has 300 stores in 38 countries. Like a number of other companies, IKEA uses Swedish culture as part of its marketing strategy. The company tells stories about Sweden that Swedes as well as non-Swedes recognise and identify with.

Is IKEA stuff from China? ›

IKEA has more than 1200 furniture suppliers around the world, as well as 100 food product suppliers and 275 transport service providers. The five countries that supply the majority of products and services to IKEA are China, Poland, Italy, Germany and Sweden.

Which Countries Have the Most IKEA Stores? IKEA's biggest presence is in Germany, boasting of 55 stores in a country of 83 million people, or about one store per 1.5 million Germans. 🇺🇸 U.S. A 2022 survey found that 96% of Germans knew of the IKEA brand of which 64% actively bought furniture from them.

IKEA moved to the USA in the 1970s and encountered many challenges, as the range of furniture was not suited to the American lifestyle. For example, IKEA's drinking glasses were smaller than what Americans were used to – consumers were mistakenly purchasing flower vases to drink out of!

The first IKEA store in the United States opened nearby in Plymouth Meeting, PA in 1985, and relocated to become IKEA Conshohocken in 2003.

IKEA is named after the initials of founder Ingvar Kamprad, Elmtaryd, the farm on which he grew up, and Agunnaryd, the nearby village. Before the most recent update in 2018, the logo had not been revamped since the 1980s.

Each product is named after Swedish towns and villages, humans, and other applicable Swedish words. The system is even cooler than simply assigning random Swedish words to products. Each category of products is assigned a specific type of name.

But Kallax, Färgrik, Ektorp, and Björksta? They're actual places taken from Swedish geography, though you might not know it from a simple Google search, as oftentimes it's the piece from IKEA—founded in 1943—that pops up first. (Fun fact: The naming team prefers titles with an Ä, Å or Ö.)

And IKEA probably has many thousands more of names of georaphical places in Sweden in store. After all, IKEA is an acronym for 'Ingvar Kamprad, Elmtaryd, Agunnaryd': the founder, plus the name of the homestead and the town [population today: 210] where he was born.