The history I bet you did not know….
IKEA is currently the world’s largest furniture retailer, with five hundred million people in the world visiting its stores each year. Well, to tell you the truth, I was there today in the morning, and I came back home with a new couch 😊. The company has three hundred stores in forty-four countries around the world, which makes it a leader in the furniture industry. The main goal of the company is to provide cheap and functional furniture at an affordable price. IKEA has five factories in Europe – 2 in Poland and three in Sweden.
How did IKEA start…?
The history of the company’s establishment is very colorful and interesting. IKEA was established in 1943 in the south of Sweden, in Småland. Its founder was a seventeen-year-old boy – Ingvar Kamprad. The boy had a great business gift, and IKEA was not his first venture. Previously, he was selling matches in his hometown. His capital to start IKEA came from his father, who rewarded him for his good academic performance. He named his company IKEA from the first letters of his first and last name, and the names of the Elmtaryd family farm and the village of Agunnaryd. The company initially dealt with the sale of pens, frames, wallets, tablecloths, watches, jewelry, stockings, and small furniture. Kamprad was borrowing a truck from a local milkman to transport his goods.
Biographical note
Ingvar Kamprad, “ the father” of the IKEA brand, was born on March 30, 1926, in the Swedish municipality of Älmhult, but grew up on the family farm Elmtaryd, in the parish of Agunnaryd. The first business young Ingvar Kamprad founded was a minor. Even as a small, 5-year-old boy showed high interest in trade and business skills. He bought the matches on the market and sold them at a profit distributing them by bicycle to nearby homes. Soon expanded its range of seeds, office supplies, and Christmas decorations. The money from the profits from the sales and put down at the age of ten years he bought his first used car.
With time, his business sentiment and widened the age of 17-hundred years ago founded the first activity. This took place in 1943 and the name was established as Ingvar acronym, Kamprad, Elmtaryd, Agunnaryd. A simple idea for the name resulted in the appearance on the market of one of the most famous brands – IKEA. To be able to open your business Ingvar Kamprad had to obtain the written consent of a guardian. He gave her his uncle Ernst, who recognized that the young nephew has a business head and has a chance to succeed.
Difficult early development
If someone thinks that the vision of the company was clarified IKEA Ingvar Kamprad in mind from the very beginning of the uprising, very wrong. Initially teenager business had nothing to do with the sale of furniture and innovations in this field.
In line with its activities, Ingvar Kamprad studied at the School of Economics in Gothenburg. In his company, he dealt with the sale of portfolios, jewelry, and stockings. It was not until four years after starting the business, Ingvar noted in the local press announcement of the sale of furniture, which posted a competitive company. His business instincts then said full power. Intuition told him that the sale of furniture and interior design as the main area of activity can cause clients. Although the industry already operated several businesses in Sweden have offered furniture Ingvar Kamprad decided to think of something else. So was the first IKEA living with a permanent exhibition, which the customer can see. The brand’s success came a little later.
The Humble beginning
As early as 1947, he had the idea to focus solely on the production of furniture, and in 1958 he opened his first furniture showroom. There, Kamprad exhibited the arranged interiors of individual rooms, which resembled those of today’s IKEA showrooms. Ingvar’s expansion into the Swedish market progressed gradually, which other furniture makers fiercely opposed and led to a boycott. Gradually, Kamprad’s contractors began to withdraw from cooperation, but the company was saved thanks to … Poland and its people…
Poland is essential for IKEA’s success
Ingvar-Kamprad Furniture and interior fittings of the IKEA brand were produced only at the very beginning in the home country for the owner of Sweden. When Ingvar Kamprad’s industry rival boycotted his business because he was selling furniture too cheaply and infuriating them, and manufacturers and suppliers withdrew from IKEA contracts, the entrepreneur was forced in 1953 to find alternative production and transport options. The country that helped him overcome the serious crisis that threatened the existence of his company was Poland. In 1961, Ingvar Kamprad paid his first visit to Radomsko, where he saw how the factory works, with which he wanted to sign a contract for the production of furniture for IKEA. On the second day of the trip, Kamprad managed to finally negotiate and sign a contract. In the future, the contract with the factory in Radomsko near Częstochowa brought IKEA a turnover of two billion crowns.
Poland and its furniture factories undoubtedly contributed to the dynamic development of the IKEA brand, although it is difficult to say whether they saved Ingvar Kamprad’s company from collapse. Fighting rivals in their native Sweden with the use of independent partners from Poland was a very good move, increasing IKEA’s strong position on the market.
Today, the company is a world leader in the production of furniture and is still run by the Kamprad family, Ingvar himself is 91 years old and is still actively contributing to the company.
IKEA philosophy
The main goal of this company is to sell nice, functional, and cheap furniture on a mass scale. Thus, IKEA products are characterized by:
- The low price
- the simplicity that makes them universal
- functionality
- high quality and durability
These assumptions are met thanks to the existence of a powerful design and distribution center, where the company’s development strategies are carefully prepared. This activity starts with designing furniture, assessing it, creating a catalog, and planning distribution. IKEA also focuses on long-term cooperation with trusted contractors, for example, one of the factories has been cooperating with IKEA since 1952. The brand cooperates only with the best designers who create timeless furniture, like all over the world. IKEA also applies advanced quality controls, making it a cheap brand that is by no means associated with trash.
Chipboard IKEA – the most famous material
Chipboard is the main building material of this company, and the process of its formation is very complicated. Wood materials go to a large dryer, where they are subjected to a temperature of 450 degrees. As much as 40,000 kg of shavings can be deposited there at one time. The dried material then passes a shaker which removes particles of the wrong size. The next step is to glue the chips to the entire board, for this purpose a very strong resin glue is used. Thanks to this specificity, the board becomes durable and waterproof. After adding the resin, the finished board is compressed, formed, and dried.
IKEA Flat Boxes
IKEA, as a furniture manufacturer, is famous primarily for the fact that customers have to assemble the purchased furniture themselves, and they are transported home in flat boxes. This solution significantly improves production, sales, and transport and is very convenient for the customer. Legend has it that the idea of flat boxes was born back in 1956 when one IKEA employee wanted to fit a table in his car. He only succeeded after unscrewing the legs of the table and laying all the parts flat in the car. IKEA has developed an intelligent system for the production, packaging, and assembly of furniture so that each customer can easily transport and assemble each piece of furniture.
Quality standards at IKEA
The IKEA test laboratory is one of the largest and most advanced furniture research centers in the world, located at the company’s headquarters. The resistance, durability, and functionality of the furniture sold are checked there. Based on the simulation of everyday use of furniture, the company wants to eliminate all the shortcomings of a given model. Fire tests are also performed, and the behavior of the furniture is checked when it comes into contact with fire.
International brand development
Cheap and functional IKEA furniture along with the specific model of their presentation has become a hit with customers. Ingvar Kamprad started to develop his business abroad, opening the first foreign branch in Switzerland, near Zurich. It is strategically located not in the center of a large city, but on its outskirts. Once the customer arrived at IKEA, he did not want to leave the store without making any purchase. In this way, over the next few years, in new foreign locations, IKEA generated more and more profits.
IKEA store buildings for customers were a total novelty – the showrooms made it possible to enter and see the furniture closely, in arranged rooms and rooms. Ingvar Kamprad proposed highly functional and practical furniture that could be seen “live” in the store and immediately packed in packages for the car. Standard sizes and a multitude of functions, interesting solutions, and innovative ideas of IKEA appealed to a wide range of customers.
IKEA furniture was the first on the world market that could be packed into regular packages and assembled at home. It was good quality furniture, at an attractive, phenomenally low price. Therefore, Ingvar Kamprad and his IKEA have been successful.
Ikea Catalogue
(Swedish: Ikea-katalogen) is a catalog published annually by the Swedish home furnishing retailer IKEA. First published in Swedish in 1951 the catalog is considered to be the main marketing tool of the company and, as of 2004, consumed 70% of its annual marketing budget. Approximately 208 million copies of the catalog were printed in the fiscal year 2013, more than double the number of Bibles expected to be printed in the same period.
The first IKEA catalog was published in 1951 in Sweden. It had 68 pages and 285,000 copies were distributed in Southern Sweden. At its peak in 2016, 200 million copies of the catalog were distributed, in 69 different versions and 32 languages, to more than 50 countries.
In December 2020, IKEA announced that, after a 70-year run, they would end publication of the catalog, with the 2021 edition being the final edition.
IKEA restaurant
IKEA is not only selling furniture, but also a famous restaurant where healthy, traditional, and ecological Swedish dishes are served. Kamprad once again confirmed his sense of business. He knew that hungry customers would love to stop for lunch at such a restaurant after a day of shopping. Customers did not have to leave the store premises and could use the working kitchen at any time. No matter in which country you are, you will always find Hot dogs and Swedish meatballs in absolutely every Ikea
The controversy around the founder of IKEA
In the 1990s, an inconvenient fact was revealed about Ingvar Kamprad, who had sympathized with fascists in the past. This information came out at the worst possible moment because it was then that IKEA began its expansion in the Israeli market.
It turned out that Ingvar Kamprad was an active member of the Nazi party of the Swedish Socialist Coalition until 1948. The founder of IKEA quickly responded to this information. He stated that it was the most embarrassing episode of his life, admitted that it was a big mistake which he regrets very much. As compensation, he significantly supported financially selected Jewish organizations.
