Latest news with #IngvarKamprad
BBC News
2 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Young, curious and fun: Ikea was a playground for young designers
Ingvar Kamprad was just 17 years old when he set up a mail order sales business in flat-packed goods which could be assembled at home, he used his initials and his bearings at the family farm in Elmtaryd in the village of Agunnaryd in Sweden to create the name of his new business – decades later, Ikea is one of the biggest retailers in the world, known for its modernist approach, simple designs and customer even has its own museum – on the site of the first store in Almhult – which has curated an exhibition of iconic fabrics which celebrate the company's pioneering textile department. "At the beginning of the 60s Ingvar realised that what was missing was the textiles and colour which are so vital to the home," says the museum's curator Anna Sandberg Falk."So he brought in a bunch of really talented young women who knew the textile business – and because no-one really cared about textiles, they had a lot of freedom. They were young, and curious and they had a lot of fun." In 1962, IKEA hired Danish textile artist Bitten Hojmark and later Inger Nilsson who introduced new technology, bold patterns and the first Swedish version of the Natural Colour System. Developed by physicist Tryggve Johansson at Sweden's National Defence Research Institute, it uses a scientific approach to describe and reproduce colours accurately on a wide range of products and was an important breakthrough and artists such as Inez Svensson, Gota Tradgardh and Sven Fristedt revelled in their new-found colour palette - even if their designs weren't always instantly appealing."Randig Banan was created in the mid 80s. It was so brave and bold but it was considered to be something that would scare the customers away so it was hidden away under the table," says Anna Sandberg in 2013 as part of a temporary collection, it's become one of the company's most popular designs. Despite being one of many prints designed by Ines Svensson, it was the one she requested that her coffin be draped in and when she died at the age of 73. This was duly honoured. It has since inspired many designers including Ida Pettersson Preutz."I was 10 years old, and I think my sister introduced it to me because she bought it second hand and made a cushion of it, and I instantly fell in love with it, " she when she was commissioned to make a pattern around food in 2014, she channelled the same playfulness with her bright green broccoli motif on a background of wavy neon pink stripes." I always like to add a little twist, a twinkle in the eye in the patterns that I do. Something which makes people feel the same way I felt about striped bananas."Her design has pride of place among 180 textiles which feature in a new exhibition at Dovecot Studios in highlights the work of 10-gruppen – a collective of 10 Swedish designers founded in 1971 who rebelled against the small flowered textile norms of the early 70s in favour of bright colours and bold work was echoed in the 1996 advertising campaign "Chuck out the chintz". Dovecot's director Celia Joicey has been negotiating with Ikea Museum since it opened in 2016 and has secured the first touring exhibition."Dovecot is a tapestry studio so we make the finest fine-art textiles by hand which are expensive and exclusive to acquire so the idea that we could bring this element of democracy where there are fabrics that everybody can use and we can hang them as works of art is interesting," she says."Textile is an important medium for Scotland and it has a long history of taking design to the rest of the world. "But Swedish design has had a huge impact on the world, starting with the post war housing boom which saw 1.2 million homes being built in the UK in a very short space of time."The two very different design spaces hope this will be the start of a productive collaboration. The 180 textiles on show are just a fraction of those held in the Ikea Museum archive."I think we could do another 10 exhibitions like this," says Anna."There's so much to choose from."And for Ida Petterson, whose vibrant broccoli is the central image of the exhibition, it's an honour to be part of Swedish design history."It's a "pinch me" moment," she says."To have my work hanging alongside the designs which inspired it is lovely."Ikea: Magical Patterns is at Dovecot Studios until 17 January 2026
Courier-Mail
14-06-2025
- Business
- Courier-Mail
Inside IKEA's top secret product lab in Sweden, where new items are dreamt up
Don't miss out on the headlines from Interiors. Followed categories will be added to My News. Each of home furnishing giant IKEA's 12,000 products has passed through a fairly typical-looking three-storey office block in a tiny town in Sweden's south. The top secret product development laboratory is where an army of engineers and designers comes up with a host of new future concepts, from beds, couches and tables to lamps, speakers and air purifiers. 'Magic happens here,' Fredrika Inger, managing director of IKEA of Sweden, declares. Inger has just welcomed a small and carefully vetted group of international journalists to the lab in Älmhult to receive a rare insight into how additions to the vast product range go from idea to reality. 'There are several designated zones where you may take pictures, but nowhere else,' she instructs. Security is tight, and for good reason. X SUBSCRIBER ONLY IKEA's whole-of-home philosophy means there are some incredible and out-of-the-box prototypes securely housed within these four walls. Every product that's developed must meet a strict criteria of five values – form, function, sustainability, quality, and low prices. 'The people who work here have a tough job,' Inger says. 'We have a minimum criteria – meeting those five goals – but then we see how we can stretch them. We call it democratic design.' The top-secret IKEA product design laboratory in Älmhult, a small town in Sweden's south where the world's first IKEA store opened in 1958. It's tempting to see these grand statements and passionately declared philosophies as typically hollow corporate speak. But IKEA has believed in these principles since it was founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad, a 17-year-old visionary who began with pens and wallets before eventually pioneering the concept of chic but affordable plat-packed furniture. Ingvar Kamprad created IKEA in the 1940s and built it into a global icon. The very first large format store, which current big box IKEAs around the world are still largely based on, remains standing in Älmhult and is now a sprawling museum. It houses originals of key pieces from each decade – defining products, sheets of fabric, a host of trinkets and curiosities, and technological innovations alike. From the very first range to now, the belief behind every single product is the same – create something that makes life easier or more pleasant. Or ideally, both. Frederika Inger welcoming journalists to the top-secret product development lab. 'The world we live in is a bit tough,' Inger says. 'There are many challenges and it's a bit scary. This a defining time in history and there's an opportunity for us to be a positive force and help people live well and stay on the right path.' IKEA's product designers don't just operate on gut instinct. Teams of researchers spend time in the field, embedded within the homes of regular people to observe how they live and what can be improved. In some cases, that need is confirmed by the experiences of the engineers themselves. David Wahl is a senior designer who spearheaded an emerging and burgeoning new category while working with IKEA in China. Being used to the clean and crisp environment of Scandinavia, Wahl became worried about air quality in congested and smoggy Shanghai. But he found his stock standard store-bought home air purifier ugly and uninspiring. 'I went to Beijing Road, the electronics district where you can buy just about anything,' he recalls. 'I had the idea of building my own air purifier that looked like a piece of furniture.' He bought a pretty basket and embedded the machinery inside it. It looked nice but 'wasn't necessarily the most effective purifier', he laughs. David Wahl's first prototype of a piece of furniture with an air purifier built inside. Over coming weeks, he continued tinkering with the design in his spare time, perfecting it until the piece was both robust, efficient and attractive. Realising he was onto something, Wahl thought about the mass market implications. Long story short, his initiative led to the creation of the Starkvind table with a built-in air purifier and smart home connectivity. David Wahl with a concept sketch of the table with built-in air purifier he invented. The Starkvind table with built-in air purifier is an example of innovative IKEA design. There's also an iteration of the product that allow it to be stood vertically at 90 degrees, almost doubling as a kind of art piece. Another growing product segment is sound – and well beyond a device to blare music from, product design developer Stjepan Begic explains. As IKEA hones in on its focus on sleep quality, with mattresses, pillows, doonas and textiles, it once again brings its whole-of-home focus by integrating lighting and sound into the equation. 'When it comes to sound in the bedroom, you normally only think about blockout noises, like white noise,' Begic says. 'But we think you can use sounds to create certain scenarios … winding down, waking up, as well as sleeping.' Hi-tech and smart products are increasingly common, like the Symfonisk lamp with speaker. … or the Symfonisk wall art with built-in speaker. His team has been embedding speakers in more and more products. There's the Symfonisk lamp with state-of-the-art sound technology and Wi-Fi, a piece of wall art with a concealed speaker, and a bookshelf speaker that looks like a sculpture. 'It doesn't impose and it can slide in between books and be forgotten,' Begic says. 'Not many people want a big, chunky and cumbersome speaker in their room, but they are very open to emerging technologies that improve life. Combining functionality with design to make it as unobtrusive as possible is the goal.' Designers demo the clever features of a new couch. IKEA has designed lighting products from its early days, but they've evolved significantly as technology has improved. They do much more than switch on and off these days. With smart home functionality, there's a 'rise and shine' wake up mode with red, warm and gradually brightening qualities that mimic a sunrise and help the body to wake naturally, as well as a wind down mode that eventually does the opposite and prepares the body for slumber. A stand-alone test lab, staffed by robots, sees products put through their paces. Each mattress is designed with the help of hi-tech data insights. There's even adaptive lighting technology that allows lights to adjust to the environment throughout the day. Prototypes developed in the lab undergo rigorous testing in a specialised facility next door, where automated machines and futuristic models ensure long-lasting quality. Can someone lay on a mattress tens of thousands of times without it losing its form and comfort? What about a lounge chair – will it still look top notch after a decade of being sat on? There's a lot involved before the next cool lamp or chic sofa winds up in a 'The product range of tomorrow starts here with us today,' Inger says, adding that there's a lot to be excited about. Like what? 'You'll see,' she smiles. Originally published as Inside IKEA's top secret product lab in Sweden, where new items are dreamt up
News.com.au
13-06-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Inside IKEA's top secret product lab in Sweden, where new items are dreamt up
Each of home furnishing giant IKEA's 12,000 products has passed through a fairly typical-looking three-storey office block in a tiny town in Sweden's south. The top secret product development laboratory is where an army of engineers and designers comes up with a host of new future concepts, from beds, couches and tables to lamps, speakers and air purifiers. 'Magic happens here,' Fredrika Inger, managing director of IKEA of Sweden, declares. Inger has just welcomed a small and carefully vetted group of international journalists to the lab in Älmhult to receive a rare insight into how additions to the vast product range go from idea to reality. 'There are several designated zones where you may take pictures, but nowhere else,' she instructs. Security is tight, and for good reason. IKEA's whole-of-home philosophy means there are some incredible and out-of-the-box prototypes securely housed within these four walls. Every product that's developed must meet a strict criteria of five values – form, function, sustainability, quality, and low prices. 'The people who work here have a tough job,' Inger says. 'We have a minimum criteria – meeting those five goals – but then we see how we can stretch them. We call it democratic design.' It's tempting to see these grand statements and passionately declared philosophies as typically hollow corporate speak. But IKEA has believed in these principles since it was founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad, a 17-year-old visionary who began with pens and wallets before eventually pioneering the concept of chic but affordable plat-packed furniture. The very first large format store, which current big box IKEAs around the world are still largely based on, remains standing in Älmhult and is now a sprawling museum. It houses originals of key pieces from each decade – defining products, sheets of fabric, a host of trinkets and curiosities, and technological innovations alike. From the very first range to now, the belief behind every single product is the same – create something that makes life easier or more pleasant. Or ideally, both. 'The world we live in is a bit tough,' Inger says. 'There are many challenges and it's a bit scary. This a defining time in history and there's an opportunity for us to be a positive force and help people live well and stay on the right path.' IKEA's product designers don't just operate on gut instinct. Teams of researchers spend time in the field, embedded within the homes of regular people to observe how they live and what can be improved. In some cases, that need is confirmed by the experiences of the engineers themselves. David Wahl is a senior designer who spearheaded an emerging and burgeoning new category while working with IKEA in China. Being used to the clean and crisp environment of Scandinavia, Wahl became worried about air quality in congested and smoggy Shanghai. But he found his stock standard store-bought home air purifier ugly and uninspiring. 'I went to Beijing Road, the electronics district where you can buy just about anything,' he recalls. 'I had the idea of building my own air purifier that looked like a piece of furniture.' He bought a pretty basket and embedded the machinery inside it. It looked nice but 'wasn't necessarily the most effective purifier', he laughs. Over coming weeks, he continued tinkering with the design in his spare time, perfecting it until the piece was both robust, efficient and attractive. Realising he was onto something, Wahl thought about the mass market implications. Long story short, his initiative led to the creation of the Starkvind table with a built-in air purifier and smart home connectivity. There's also an iteration of the product that allow it to be stood vertically at 90 degrees, almost doubling as a kind of art piece. Another growing product segment is sound – and well beyond a device to blare music from, product design developer Stjepan Begic explains. As IKEA hones in on its focus on sleep quality, with mattresses, pillows, doonas and textiles, it once again brings its whole-of-home focus by integrating lighting and sound into the equation. 'When it comes to sound in the bedroom, you normally only think about blockout noises, like white noise,' Begic says. 'But we think you can use sounds to create certain scenarios … winding down, waking up, as well as sleeping.' His team has been embedding speakers in more and more products. There's the Symfonisk lamp with state-of-the-art sound technology and Wi-Fi, a piece of wall art with a concealed speaker, and a bookshelf speaker that looks like a sculpture. 'It doesn't impose and it can slide in between books and be forgotten,' Begic says. 'Not many people want a big, chunky and cumbersome speaker in their room, but they are very open to emerging technologies that improve life. Combining functionality with design to make it as unobtrusive as possible is the goal.' IKEA has designed lighting products from its early days, but they've evolved significantly as technology has improved. They do much more than switch on and off these days. With smart home functionality, there's a 'rise and shine' wake up mode with red, warm and gradually brightening qualities that mimic a sunrise and help the body to wake naturally, as well as a wind down mode that eventually does the opposite and prepares the body for slumber. There's even adaptive lighting technology that allows lights to adjust to the environment throughout the day. Prototypes developed in the lab undergo rigorous testing in a specialised facility next door, where automated machines and futuristic models ensure long-lasting quality. Can someone lay on a mattress tens of thousands of times without it losing its form and comfort? What about a lounge chair – will it still look top notch after a decade of being sat on? There's a lot involved before the next cool lamp or chic sofa winds up in a 'The product range of tomorrow starts here with us today,' Inger says, adding that there's a lot to be excited about. Like what? 'You'll see,' she smiles.
Daily Mail
01-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
You've been saying IKEA all wrong! Boss explains the correct way to pronounce name of the Swedish flatpack giant as it opens new Oxford Street store
For years, flat-pack fans across the UK have been proudly talking about their latest IKEA purchases whether it's a Billy bookcase or a Malm chest of drawers. But it turns out we've all been getting it completely wrong. CEO Jesper Brodin was speaking on Sky News following the grand opening of the flatpack giants new £450million flagship Oxford Street store. He joked: 'I will allow you to say whatever you like, but it is true that the right Swedish spelling would be 'eh-kay-ah'. 'I'm going to say that when the founder, who was 16 years old when he founded the company and he went to the register and he didn't have an idea for the name of the company so then they took his initials: Ingvar Kamprad. 'So that is 'ee' in Swedish 'eye' in English. Elmtaryd, the farm he was from, and Agunnaryd, was the county. 'So Ikea is basically the man himself and where he came from.' The pronunciation drama comes as IKEA opens the doors to its much-anticipated Oxford Street store today. The twice delayed £450 million shop is being seen by retail and council bosses as a crucial part of restoring Oxford Street to its former glory as one of the world's premier shopping destinations. CEO Jesper Brodin was speaking on Sky News following the grand opening of the flatpack giants new £450million flagship Oxford Street store It has taken over the former Topshop base in the capital to open a three-floor outlet selling around 6,000 products, of which 3,500 can be carried away by customers immediately, and the rest ordered for home delivery, click and collect or collection off site from lockers and other pick-up points. Pictures of the opening show staff, in yellow and blue tops, cheering and waving the flags of the UK and Sweden to greet shoppers as the walk in. London Mayor Sadiq Khan was also there to cut the ribbon and officially open the shops door for the first time. He smiled alongside staff surrounded by balloons. However there has already been some skepticism over how customers are going to transport their goods home, as there is no parking. So you will need to be able to carry away what you buy - meaning the 3500 items sold in the store weigh less than 15kg and are no more than 150cm in length. It is the second UK high street store for the company - the first opened in Hammersmith in 2022 - which it described as a 'milestone' in a strategy to expand its presence in city centres with smaller formats, increasing accessibility for customers. Another city centre store, in central Brighton, is set to open this summer, followed by three smaller stores in Chester, Harlow and Norwich this year. The company said it had further specific areas of interest including in London, the Midlands and the North West, but no new locations to confirm yet. Ingvar Feodor Kamprad was born in Pjatteryd, Sweden, on March 30, 1926, the son of modest farmers. He was dyslexic but unusually bright and, aged five, was already a budding tycoon, selling matchboxes, Christmas cards, pens, wall hangings and berries he'd picked in the forests. He founded Ikea when he was just 16 by using money his father gave him as a reward for trying so hard, despite his dyslexia, to register it. Soon he was advertising in newspapers, selling furniture by mail order and sending it to the station on the milk cart. By 1953, he had a showroom, but in 1956, when he saw delivery men removing a table's legs to transport it more easily, he had his flat-pack brainwave and everything changed. He founded Ikea when he was just 16 by using money his father gave him as a reward for trying so hard, despite his dyslexia, to register it Ikea took off like a rocket. Meanwhile, his first marriage, to Kerstin Wadling, foundered after ten years and, in 1963, he married Margaretha Sennert, with whom he had three sons, Peter, Jonas, and Mathias. By the Sixties there were Ikeas all over Scandinavia. When rivals tried to organise a boycott by his suppliers, he moved to Poland for materials and manufacturers and cut costs further. After that, the Ikea revolution was unstoppable. The first U.S. Ikea — near Philadelphia — opened in 1986. A year later came the first British store, in Warrington (by the end of 2018, there will be 22 UK stores). Russia and China followed.
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How Ikea rewrote the rules with inflation-defying prices and one of the world's most popular books
Europe is home to some of the world's most iconic companies. Many started small to quell a single person's curiosity before exploding into a global phenomenon. As a new resident, big, successful European brands have piqued my interest. What's their story? How did they transform into the giants they are today? How have they sustained their legacy over time? Those are some of the questions I explore in this new series. Most companies move with the tide–Ikea rewrites the playbook. The Swedish furnishing company, which has become synonymous with all things at home, figured out its place in the world some 80 years ago and has stuck by that vision even when all hell broke loose. 85 Much of what it does today comes down to a dossier that Ikea's founder, Ingvar Kamprad, devised in 1976, titled 'The Testament of a Furniture Dealer.' He was so precise in his idea of what he wanted of the company, which he started as a mail-order business, that Kamprad's words are handed to every new Ikea employee even today. Kamprad's vision was clear from day one: 'Expensive solutions to any kind of problem are usually the work of mediocrity. We have no respect for a solution until we know what it costs.' Many of the company's choices have been astonishing in the age of modern business. It never took outside financing and shunned the idea of being publicly listed. Ikea built its fortune by selling simplistic, flat-packed furniture that people pay to assemble on their own. In exchange, the company promised top-quality cabinets and tables, erring on the side of minimalism and functionality. Ikea's knack for going against the grain became the cornerstone of its growth: The sticker price on some of its furniture, like the Poäng chair, is 70% cheaper now than 30 years ago. Another decision Kamprad made early on was separating the group into two entities: One is a charitable foundation based in the Netherlands that owns most Ikea stores and manages its profits, while the other oversees the company's retail operations. View this interactive chart on While this ownership model shares elements with other European companies, such as Novo Nordisk and AB InBev, Kamprad's single-minded focus was Ikea's independence from demanding shareholders or inheritance spats. 'He was almost obsessed with the longevity of Ikea, and he wanted to make sure that he did everything he could do to actually enable that,' said Peter van der Poel, managing director for Ingka Investments, the investment arm of the group that owns most Ikea stores. He received the handbook when he first joined the company in 1999 as a sales manager and says he still resonates with the 'timeless' lessons it imparts. Kamprad's Nazi ties became a subject of scrutiny and immense backlash in the early-2010s after a book revealed his connection went deeper than he previously stated. He wrote a letter apologizing to Ikea employees, regretting his fascist links and calling them 'silly' in hindsight. Last year, Ikea agreed to pay €6 million in compensation for the forced labor of prisoners fleeing former East Germany. Kamprad died in 2018 as the world's eighth-richest man. By this time, Ikea had become the biggest purveyor of home furnishing goods. But that's not all it was: The Swedish retailer produced the most-printed book of all time—an unassuming brochure of all Ikea products—until 2021. For several years, Kamprad curated the catalog that became the company's sales pitch to faithful shoppers. Some 220 million copies of the Ikea book were printed in 32 languages at its peak, making it one of the most-printed books in the world. Today, Ikea is one of the top restaurant chains measured by number of customers, thanks to its cafe, which serves meatballs, hot dogs, and salmon gravlax. To be successful in so many endeavors is no small feat. The Swedish retailer has made its presence felt globally by figuring out the fundamentals of its business early, spotting and sorting issues as they arise, and investing every penny it makes into its future. 3 things that helped Ikea conquer the world: 1. Finding its footing Ikea would not be the company it is today without the concepts of 'lista,' a relentless focus on frugality and democratic design. Kamprad grew up in the southern province of Småland, where the history was riddled with poverty, warranting a level of thriftiness to survive. People had no choice but to find creative ways to solve problems by making do with the bare minimum. This approach, called 'lista,' guided every decision Kamprad made when expanding his business. When it came to furniture, he resisted the urge to invest heavily in elaborate designs and craftsmanship, instead favoring a fusion of creativity and frugality. The company's famous flat-packs powered this very goal. Gillis Lundgren, Ikea's fourth employee and the brains behind many of the company's designs, including its logo, suggested dismantling the legs of a table when transporting it—and that's how the flat-pack was born. Before this became mainstream, furniture would take weeks to deliver, and furniture makers would be responsible for bringing bulky packages to people's homes and assembling them. When Ikea began expanding beyond Sweden, flat-packing proved its silver bullet for overcoming the challenge of expensive transportation. It controlled costs and allowed the company to pass those savings on to customers. The company's use of Allen keys to screw and unscrew furniture complemented the ease that flat-packing offered. The unwitting bonus of making flat-pack and self-assembly the norm was the so-called 'Ikea effect,' which caused people to feel much more attached to the furniture they put together. The 2011 paper's authors likened Ikea's model to that of ready-made cake mixes of the 1950s. When an initial experiment with the product failed, manufacturers tweaked the recipe to require bakers to add eggs, leading to a 'greater liking for the fruits of one's labor.' How Ikea makes its products is not set in stone. Sometimes, it reverse-engineers them by deciding the price first, and then designing the product to fit this constraint. Its €1 LED bulb is an example of this challenge. It proved technically challenging at first, but the solution lay in using higher-quality parts that doubled up in function to achieve a low-cost bulb. But the quest for all things low-cost could have led Ikea astray and into discount piles instead of elevating it to furnishing royalty. The mantra of 'democratic design' prevented that from happening. The concept leans into the fundamentals of Scandinavian design philosophies. While cost, no doubt, is a key determinant of whether a product makes Ikea's cut, form, functionality, quality, and sustainability also matter. 'Ikea's success is largely driven by smart, practical design choices to accommodate most living spaces and scenarios,' said Alex Coates, director of Burra Design, an interior design firm specializing in Ikea cabinetry. He previously worked in Ikea's U.K. design team for six years. Coates added that the retailer is seen as 'offering one of the best price-to-style ratios in the home furnishings market,' and the 'exceptionally high guarantees' make shoppers feel more confident about their purchases. 'Ikea's success is largely driven by smart, practical design choices to accommodate most living spaces and scenarios" The simplicity of the company's furniture inadvertently sparked do-it-yourself projects on the internet, with people turning place mats into ceiling lights and sprucing up $4 spice racks. 2. Spot a problem, solve it Since its humble beginnings in 1943, Ikea has evolved dramatically in size, reach, and product offerings. Despite the success on paper, in the mid-2000s, the Swedish giant went from being the disruptor to the disrupted in the furniture market. For one thing, e-commerce became a pain point for the company, especially as the 80-plus-year-old Kamprad feared straying away from the tried-and-tested operating model. Rivals were already making strides: Amazon's marketplace was up and running and had become hugely popular worldwide. Subsequently, other traditional retailers began pouring money into e-commerce, raising the pressure on Ikea to create its own offering. Even though the company had taken a left-field approach to design and retailing, CEO Jesper Brodin had to contend with the inertia from within the company before shaking up Ikea's brick-and-mortar-store format and establishing its online shopping presence. It wasn't until 2017 that change began. Ikea invested heavily in creating an app and other services to support online shopping. Traffic for these increased by 50% by the 2019 financial year. Last fiscal year, Ikea's website had approximately 4.6 billion visits. "Besides accessibility, experiential elements have long been a hallmark of its brand, with its physical stores often seen as the goal for a day-out retail experience,' said Sam Nguyen, senior retail analyst at market research firm Mintel, adding that Ikea focuses on 'the generation of shoppers increasingly driven by convenience.' The biggest trick to understanding Ikea's growth puzzle is its receptiveness to shoppers' needs. 4.6 billion Perhaps the earliest evidence came from the company's food introduction at its stores. When Ikea's cafe debuted in 1958, the mixing of food and retail was unheard of. Kamprad argued that customers with full stomachs 'stay longer and buy more,' but he didn't want to make food Ikea's cash cow (even today, Ikea's hot dogs will set you back by just 85 pence in London). The strategy has worked wonders for the retail giant. Today, Ikea sells some 1.2 billion meatballs annually, and executives characterize meatballs as the 'best sofa-seller.' Another way Ikea has responded to people's gripes is by launching a variety of store formats. For many decades, the Swedish retailer only sold its furniture one way: in its sprawling, maze-like stores often located outside city centers. But people's busy lifestyles kept them in downtown areas, making Ikea inaccessible in its well-loved shape and form. That's when the company rolled out a spate of smaller stores and pickup locations along with 'Plan & Order' to consult with Ikea experts on room designs. Some of Ikea's thoughtfulness toward customers is reflected in how it treats its 216,000 employees. During the pandemic, the company faced alarming turnover among staff in the U.S., the U.K., and Ireland, with each exit costing upwards of $5,000 to replace. Movement in retail employment was not uncommon, given tight schedules and relatively low pay. Still, protests and unionization bids in some markets underscored the issues Ikea faced. Ikea's biggest franchisee, Ingka Group, sought to reverse the damage by boosting pay packages and benefits and improving the onboarding process for new hires. By last April, voluntary attrition had dropped in many key markets, Bloomberg reported. 'While values are easy to talk about (and put on websites and in corporate material), from my observations [and] research, it is clear that these are real—and also explains Ikea's learning culture,' said Anna Jonsson, an associate business professor at Stockholm University who studied the company for her PhD. 'Ikea values are used in all decisions Ikea makes,' she said. 3. Eye for investing Ikea has a deliberately complex organizational structure that Kamprad crafted so that it could outlive him. Ingka Group owns and operates the bulk of Ikea's stores and manages the retailer's finances through Ingka Investments. Ingka is foundation-owned and based in the Netherlands—another intentional move because Kamprad wanted to avoid Sweden's high taxes. (The European Union has previously probed the franchise operation overseen by Inter Ikea over its tax dealings.) The web, although complicated, has helped Ikea run like a well-oiled machine so far and has made it one of Europe's greatest retail successes. Van der Poel, who oversees the Ingka Group's investment arm from the Dutch city of Leiden, describes his job as caring for 'the lifetime savings that have been accumulated in Ingka,' which amount to roughly €27 billion in assets under management. 'There is something about the Ikea culture that is sort of magic. [But] it doesn't come for free. It takes a lot of hard work,' van der Poel said. The 2017 purchase of Taskrabbit, a platform for hiring people for handyman jobs such as furniture assembly, is one example of the type of deals Ingka Investments targets. Now, shoppers can request at-home installation through Taskrabbit. Last year, the group fully acquired Ikano Bank—another of Kamprad's projects—to offer loans and mortgages alongside Ikea's mainstay retail business. Ingka Investments also helped bolster Ikea's real estate presence in commercial hotspots, such as the 1 million-square-foot store on New York's Fifth Avenue and the new three-story shop on London's Oxford Street opening this week. 'There is something about the Ikea culture that is sort of magic. [But] it doesn't come for free. It takes a lot of hard work.' Some of Ikea's new investments aim to make it an all-encompassing retailer. The Swedish giant announced the launch of a marketplace to sell its furniture secondhand in select European markets. Many retail majors have entered the secondhand retail market, including fellow Swedish company H&M. In Ikea's case, the foray will draw it closer to its 2030 goal of halving emissions in its value chain and becoming net-zero by 2050. It will also extend the lifespan of Ikea's products before they are recycled. Ikea never stops toying with new ideas. For instance, earlier this month, it launched a delivery vehicle renting service in the Netherlands, Sweden, and Austria to help shoppers without cars carry heavy furniture home. Ikea has grown tremendously. Still, at its core, it resembles Kamprad's brainchild from 1943, and it's hard to separate his spirit from the company we see today. Furniture retailing has been a highly fragmented market due to a mix of marketplaces and independent designers operating in different regions and scales. That's why, despite its mammoth size, Ikea's global market share is just under 6%. Ikea may not have a monopoly, but few can rival its staying power. It's become one of the world's most valuable brands, according to market research firm Kantar. In its 82-year existence, its furniture is as indispensable to a student's dorm room as it is to a working professional's home office. The Dutch-headquartered company has gone to great lengths to ensure its ubiquity. As with everything at Ikea, the seed was Kamprad's larger-than-life vision of creating 'a better everyday life for the many people.' In the last few years, as inflation ticked up following the pandemic, the company has responded by slashing prices (not once but thrice). As a result, it saw higher sales but lower profit margins. The silver lining? Ikea's private ownership and preparedness for the metaphorical 'rainy days' help buttress the billions of euros lost in earnings due to price cuts. That might explain why Ikea didn't flinch when retail sales dipped 5% in its 2024 financial year compared to a year earlier. Van der Poel said the company thinks 'years, sometimes even decades, with the investments that we're taking on.' Ikea faces fresh challenges amid U.S. tariffs and growing trade tensions. 'The uncertainty surrounding U.S. tariffs could disrupt Ikea's global supply chain, potentially impacting pricing and manufacturing, given the retailer's reliance on production in tariff-affected countries," Mintel's Nguyen pointed out. As an octogenarian experienced with the ebbs and flows of business, Ikea has learned to future-proof itself. A company spokesperson said that despite the volatility in global trade, Ikea's 'absolute priority' was affordability. In the increasingly complex, capitalistic business environment, Ikea emerges as an outlier with which few companies can compete in size and impact. When asked what a world without Ikea would look like, van der Poel, visibly stumped, took a few seconds before he found his words. 'It would be a world without a company that authentically aspires to make a positive difference, both in people's lives at home, but also in the way we try to conduct our business,' he said. 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