Number of employees211,000 (2019)WebsiteIKEA (, Swedish: ) is a European group that designs and sells, kitchen appliances and home accessories, among other useful goods and occasionally home services. Founded in Sweden in 1943 by 17-year-old, IKEA has been the world's largest retailer since 2008. According to the, as of January 2018, Kamprad was the eighth richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$58.7. The company's name is an that consists of the founder's initials ( Ingvar Kamprad) plus those of Elmtaryd, the family farm where he was born, and the nearby village (his hometown in, southern Sweden).The business is a private company owned by Inter IKEA Systems B.V., registered in the Netherlands and controlled by the sons of its founder Ingvar Kamprad.
The company is known for its designs for various types of appliances and furniture, and its work is often associated with an simplicity. In addition, the firm is known for its attention to cost control, operational details, and continuous product development that allowed IKEA to lower its prices by an average of two to three percent. The IKEA group has a complex corporate structure, which members of the have alleged was designed to avoid over €1 billion in tax payments over the 2009–2014 period. It is controlled by several foundations based in the and.As of June 2019, there are 433 IKEA stores operating in 52 countries and in 2018, 38.8 (44.6 billion) worth of IKEA goods were sold. The IKEA website contains about 12,000 products and there were over 2.1 billion visitors to IKEA's websites in the year from September 2015 to August 2016.
The company is responsible for approximately 1% of world commercial-product wood consumption, making it one of the largest users of wood in the retail sector.Most of IKEA's stores and factories are owned by, a controlled by the, one of the 40 wealthiest foundations in the world. INGKA received 90% of IKEA's revenue in 2018. No current or planned market locationsAmid a high level of success, the company's West German executives accidentally opened a store in in 1973 instead of. Later that decade, stores opened in other parts of the world, such as (1974), Canada, Hong Kong (1975), and (1978). IKEA further expanded in the 1980s, opening stores in countries such as and (1981), Belgium (1984), the United States (1985), the United Kingdom (1987), and Italy (1989).
The company later expanded into more countries in the 1990s and 2000s. Germany, with 53 stores, is IKEA's biggest market, followed by the, with 50 stores. The first IKEA store in opened on 17 February 2010 in,. Store design Layout. Inside a Hong Kong IKEA storeOlder IKEA stores are usually blue buildings with yellow accents (also Sweden's ).
They are often designed in a one-way layout, leading customers counter-clockwise along what IKEA calls 'the long natural way' designed to encourage the customer to see the store in its entirety (as opposed to a traditional retail store, which allows a customer to go directly to the section where the desired goods and services are displayed). There are often shortcuts to other parts of the showroom. Food marketThe sequence first involves going through the furniture showrooms making note of selected items.
The customer then collects a shopping cart and proceeds to an open-shelf 'Market Hall' warehouse for smaller items, then visits the furniture warehouse to collect previously noted showroom products in form. Sometimes, they are directed to collect products from an external warehouse on the same site or at a site nearby after purchase. Finally, customers pay for their products at a cash register.
Not all furniture is stocked at the store level, such as particular sofa colours needing to be shipped from a warehouse to the customer's home or to the store.Most stores follow the layout of having the showroom upstairs with the marketplace and self-service warehouse downstairs. Some stores are single level, while others have separate warehouses to allow more stock to be kept on-site. Single-level stores are found predominantly in areas where the cost of land would be less than the cost of building a 2-level store. Some stores have dual-level warehouses with machine-controlled silos to allow large quantities of stock to be accessed throughout the selling day.Most IKEA stores offer an 'as-is' area at the end of the warehouse, just before the cash registers.
Returned, damaged and formerly showcased products are displayed here and sold with a significant discount, but also with a no-returns policy.IKEA uses a sales technique called 'bulla bulla' in which a bunch of items are purposefully jumbled in bins, to create the impression of volume, and therefore, inexpensiveness. Restaurant and food markets. The First US Planning Studio located in Manhattan, United StatesThe vast majority of IKEA stores are located outside of city centers, primarily because of land cost and traffic access. Several smaller store formats have been unsuccessfully tested in the past (the 'midi' concept in the early '90s, which was tested in Ottawa and Heerlen with 9,300 m 2 (100,000 sq ft), or a 'boutique' shop in Manhattan).
A new format for a full-size, city centre store was introduced with the opening of the (United Kingdom) store, situated in in 2006. Another store, in opened in December 2007. The store has seven floors and a different flow from other IKEA stores. IKEA's store which opened in February 2009 is also in the city centre and built in an urban style similar to the Coventry store.
IKEA built these stores in response to UK government restrictions blocking retail establishment outside city centres.In, where shop space is limited and costly, IKEA has opened three outlets in the city, most of which have the one-way layout. They are part of shopping malls, and while being tiny compared to common store design, are huge by Hong Kong standards. In addition to tailoring store sizes for specific countries, IKEA also alters their products sizes in order to accommodate cultural differences.In 2015, IKEA announced that it would be attempting a smaller store design at several locations in Canada.
This modified store will feature only a display gallery and small warehouse. One location planned for is in the place formerly occupied by a store.
The warehouses will not keep furniture stocked, and so customers will not be able to drop in to purchase and leave with furniture the same day. Instead, they will purchase the furniture in advance online or in store and order the furniture delivered to one of the new stores, for a greatly reduced rate.
IKEA claims that this new model will allow them to expand quickly into new markets rather than spending years opening a full-size store. Products and services Furniture and homeware. BookcaseRather than being sold pre-assembled, much of IKEA's furniture is designed to be.
The company claims that this helps 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 more practical for customers using public transport, because flat packs can be more easily carried.IKEA contends that it has been a pioneering force in to. Kamprad calls this 'democratic design,' meaning that the company applies an integrated approach to manufacturing and design (see also ). In response to the and material expectations in the 20th and 21st centuries, the company implements, capturing material streams and creating manufacturing processes that hold costs and resource use down, such as the extensive use of ('MDF'), also called 'particle board.' This box:.IKEA is owned and operated by a complicated array of and corporations.
The corporate structure is divided into two main parts: operations and franchising.Inter IKEA Systems is owned by Inter IKEA Holding, a company registered in Luxembourg. Inter IKEA Holding, in turn, is owned by the Interogo Foundation, based in Liechtenstein. In 2016, the INGKA Holding sold its design, manufacturing and logistics subsidiaries to Inter IKEA Holding.In June 2013, Ingvar Kamprad resigned from the board of Inter IKEA Holding SA and his youngest son Mathias Kamprad replaced Per Ludvigsson as the chairman of the holding company. Following his decision to step down, the 87-year-old founder explained, 'I see this as a good time for me to leave the board of Inter IKEA Group. By that we are also taking another step in the generation shift that has been ongoing for some years.' After the 2016 company restructure, Inter IKEA Holding SA no longer exists.
Mathias Kamprad became board member of the Inter IKEA Group and the Interogo Foundation. Mathias and his two older brothers, who also have leadership roles at IKEA, work on the corporation's overall vision and long-term strategy. Control by Kamprad. An IKEA reusable plastic shopping bagSince March 2013, IKEA has stopped providing to customers, but offers for sale.The IKEA restaurants also only offer reusable plates, knives, forks, spoons, etc. Toilets in some IKEA WC-rooms have been outfitted with. IKEA has recycling bins for (CFLs), energy saving bulbs and batteries.In 2001 IKEA was one of the first companies to operate its own cross-border goods trains through several countries in Europe.In August 2008, IKEA also announced that it had created IKEA GreenTech, a €50 million venture capital fund.
Located in (a university town in Sweden), it will invest in 8–10 companies in the coming five years with focus on, alternative light sources, product materials, energy efficiency and water saving and purification. The aim is to commercialise green technologies for sale in IKEA stores within 3–4 years.To make IKEA a more sustainable company, a product life cycle was created. For the idea stage, products should be flat-packed so that more items can be shipped at once; products should also be easier to dismantle and recycle. Raw materials are used, and since wood and cotton are two of IKEA's most important manufacturing products, the company works with environmentally friendly forests and cotton, whereby the excessive use of chemicals and water is avoided.IKEA stores recycle waste and many run on renewable energy.
All employees are trained in environmental and social responsibility, while public transit is one of the priorities when the location of stores is considered. Also, the coffee and chocolate served at IKEA stores is.The last stage of the life cycle is the end of life.
Most IKEA stores recycle light bulbs and drained batteries, and the company is also exploring the recycling of sofas and other home furnishing products.According to IKEA's 2012 'Sustainability Report', 23% of all wood that the company uses meets the standards of the, and the report states that IKEA aims to double this percentage by 2017. The report also states that IKEA does not accept illegally logged wood and supports 13 (WWF) projects.
Old Ikea Catalogues Pdf
Ikea owns 125,000 acres of forest in USA and about 450,000 acres in Europe. LED lamp display at an IKEA in Hong KongOn 17 February 2011, IKEA announced its plans to develop a wind farm in, furthering its goal of using only renewable energy to fuel its operations. As of June 201217 United States IKEA stores are powered by solar panels, with 22 additional installations in progress, and IKEA owns the 165 MW Cameron Wind farm in on the South Texas coast and a in Finland.In 2011, the company examined its wood consumption and noticed that almost half of its global pine and spruce consumption was for the fabrication of. The company consequently started a transition to the use of paper pallets and the 'Optiledge system'. The OptiLedge product is totally recyclable, made from 100% virgin high-impact polypropylene (PP). The system is a 'unit load alternative to the use of a pallet. The system consists of the OptiLedge (usually used in pairs), aligned and strapped to the bottom carton to form a base layer upon which to stack more product.
Corner boards are used when strapping to minimize the potential for package compression.' The conversion began in Germany and Japan, before its introduction into the rest of Europe and North America. The system has been marketed to other companies, and IKEA has formed the OptiLedge company to manage and sell the product.IKEA has expanded its sustainability plan in the UK to include electric car charge points for customers at all locations by the end of 2013. The effort will include and and promise to deliver an 80% charge in 30 minutes.In February 2014, IKEA in the UK announced that from 2016 they will only sell energy-efficient, lamps and light fixtures. LED lightbulbs use as little as 15% of the power of a regular.As of March 2018, IKEA has signed on with 25 other companies to participate in the 's Better Retail Better World initiative, which challenges companies to meet objectives outlined by the United Nations.In September 2019, IKEA announced that they would be investing $2.8 billion in renewable energy infrastructure.
The company is targeting making their entire supply chain climate positive by 2030. Donations made by IKEA The is officially dedicated to promoting 'innovations in architecture and interior design.'
The net worth of the foundation exceeded the net worth of the much better known (now the largest private foundation in the world) for a period. Main article:IKEA publishes an annual catalogue, first published in Swedish in 1951.
IKEA published 197 million catalogues in 2010, in twenty languages and sixty-one editions. It is considered to be the main marketing tool of the retail giant, consuming 70% of the company's annual marketing budget.The catalogue is distributed both in stores and by mail, with most of it being produced by IKEA Communications AB in IKEA's hometown of, Sweden where IKEA operates the largest photo studio in northern Europe at 8,000 square metres (86,000 sq ft). The catalogue itself is printed on chlorine-free paper of 10–15% post-consumer waste, and prints approximately 175 million copies worldwide annually, more than 3 times as much as the.The 2013 catalogue is smartphone compatible, containing videos and photo galleries that can be accessed via an app by scanning the catalogue's pages, while the 2014 catalog incorporates an augmented reality app that projects an item into a real-time photograph image of the user's room. The augmented reality app also provides an indication of the scale of IKEA objects in relation to the user's living environment.In May 2017, IKEA introduced an, as a shopping, developed by the. Advertising In 1994, IKEA ran a commercial in the United States widely thought to be the first to feature a homosexual couple; it aired for several weeks before being pulled after calls for a boycott and a bomb threat directed at IKEA stores. Other IKEA commercials appeal to the wider community, one featuring a woman.
IKEA marketing campaign in the Paris subwayIn 2008, IKEA paired up with the makers of video game to make a called IKEA Home Stuff, featuring many IKEA products. It was released on 24 June 2008 in and 26 June 2008 in Europe. It is the second stuff pack with a major brand, the first being.IKEA took over the title sponsorship of 's annual in 2008, replacing, which filed for bankruptcy in August 2008.In November 2008, a subway train decorated in IKEA style was introduced in, Russia. Four cars were turned into a mobile showroom of the Swedish design. The redesigned train, which features colourful seats and fancy curtains, carried passengers until 6 June 2009.In 2008–2009, (the ticket-free system for the ) were issued with IKEA-branded wallets. IKEA also sponsored the.
The IKEA Family card, issued in Canada, ca. 2012In common with some other retailers, IKEA launched a called 'IKEA Family'. The card is free of charge and can be used to obtain discounts on certain products found in-store. It is available worldwide.
In conjunction with the card, IKEA also publishes and sells a printed quarterly magazine titled IKEA Family Live which supplements the card and catalogue. The magazine is already printed in thirteen languages and an English edition for the United Kingdom was launched in February 2007.
It is expected to have a subscription of over 500,000. IKEA Place app In 12 September 2017, IKEA announced the augmented reality app, IKEA Place, following by Apple's release of its ARkit technology. IKEA Place helps consumers to visualize true to scale IKEA products into real environment. Criticisms.
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Please do not remove this message until. ( March 2014) Negative media attention IKEA's goals of sustainability and environmental design in its merchandise have sometimes been at odds with the impact a new IKEA store can have on a community. In particular, the size of proposed IKEA stores has often seen significant opposition from members of such communities. The following are a list of issues which have received negative media attention, both regarding the size of IKEA's stores and other controversies:. In September 2004, when IKEA offered a limited number of free $150 vouchers at the opening of a new store in, Saudi Arabia, three people were crushed to death in a stampede that followed the store's opening. IKEA has demolished historic buildings to make room for parking lots, including part of 's landmark and the.
(At the store in the United States, there is an interactive digital display which tells the history of a tavern which used to exist where the store is currently located.).