IKEA stores in Russia. IKEA is a Swedish company, a manufacturer of goods for the home IKEA of the country where it is

Every well-to-do Muscovite at least once in his life built a dacha, made repairs, or at least symbolically prettified his home. Creating a new interior and the desired atmosphere in the house today is a troublesome business, but quite pleasant and creative. And the IKEA store, which operates in the DIY format, that is, “do it yourself”, will help to realize home plans. It sells everything that you can beautifully “dress” your home in: from laminate boards and wall paint to luxurious curtains and lighting fixtures.

AT ikea store in Moscow, a breathtaking selection of practical and durable furniture, finishing and building materials, kitchen utensils, mirrors, decor items and other household "accessories". Here you can also find various goodies, namely traditional Swedish delicacies, in particular crispbread and herring. In addition, the Ikea store in Moscow offers the entire set of necessary additional services: here you can use the Delivery Service or the Taxi Service, as well as services for connecting built-in appliances, assembling furniture and its complex installation, etc.

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"Furniture for life"

IKEA is the world's largest manufacturer of furniture and household items. The company owns more than 251 stores worldwide. The history of IKEA began in 1943 when a young entrepreneur Ingvar Kamprad opened the first store in the small town of Älmhult in Sweden. The name IKEA is an acronym consisting of the initials of the founder and the first letters of the names of the farm where he grew up and the nearby village: "Ingvar Kamprad, Elmtaryd, Agunnaryd". The word turned out to be either by accident or deliberately consonant with the Greek oikia ("house") and the Finnish oikea ("correctly", "correctly"). IKEA is the only retail chain that sets the lifestyle for people regardless of their culture, wealth or religion.

Kamprad founded IKEA at the age of 17 with money donated by his father for successful studies. At one time, Ingvar's grandfather could not repay the loan for the farm and shot himself. The misfortune left a deep imprint in the soul of the boy. Since then, he has sought to earn by all available means. At the age of five, he bought matches in Stockholm and carried them around the village on a bicycle. As a teenager, he sold everything that was in demand; fish, pens, Christmas cards, seeds, wallets, photo frames, watches, jewelry, nylon tights. At first he ran the business out of a barn on his parent's farm, later he began to send orders by mail, delivering them to the railway station in a milkman's van. At the same time, Ingvar joined the pro-Nazi New Swedish. When the story was revealed in 1994, Kamprad did not hide behind a PR machine, but publicly apologized to Jewish IKEA employees, calling his act "the biggest mistake of my life" in the book The Saga of IKEA.

At 21, Kamprad was selling furniture and sundries in the first IKEA store in Älmhult, southern Sweden. In 1951, the first product catalog was published (until 1963, Kamprad wrote the texts personally), and since 1953, furniture has become the main product. The competition forced him to display the furniture in the store so that customers could see, touch and evaluate its quality. In 1955, Ingvar took up furniture design. In this direction, Sweden has been a recognized leader in the world. His success frightened local producers, and they "convinced" Kamprad's suppliers to stop working with him, Ingvar switched to Poland. Polish companies could supply inexpensive components in flat packs for assembly of finished furniture on site. Thus was born IKEA as it is known today.

The work of Swedish designers from the 1950s and 1960s is a modern secular utilitarian style, usually expensive. Kamprad destroyed the myth about the high cost of the Scandinavian style and brought it to the mass market affordable prices for young people who equip their first home. Thanks to Kamprad, buying furniture has become more democratic. And now, according to statistics, every tenth European was conceived in an IKEA bed.

Today, IKEA's annual turnover exceeds $15 billion and the company employs 104,000 people. The entire structure is controlled by a Dutch private holding owned by the Kamprad family. A fund with a capital of 36 billion dollars is a guarantee against a possible takeover of the company. According to the Economist magazine, this is the richest Charity organization in the world. The structure of the company is as flat as its boxes of furniture: titles and privileges are prohibited, no one wears suits, top management flies economy class, and during "anti-bureaucratic weeks" the company's top management unloads trucks and sits at the checkout. IKEA was twice included in the "100 the best companies for Working Mothers, and was ranked 96th in Fortune magazine's 100 Best Employers in 2006.

IKEA (rus. Ikea) is a Dutch production and trading group of companies, the owner of retail chains selling furniture and household goods. Founded in 1943 in Sweden, full name - IKEA International Group.

IKEA brand

Company Facts

  • Every third European living today is conceived on Ikea beds.
  • If all the furniture of this manufacturer is put on top of each other, then it will be possible to climb to the moon.
  • If all the people who work in the furniture industry are settled in one place, then an entire city will be needed.
  • Initially, the production of this furniture was located in a shed in the backyard of the creator - Ingvar Kamprad.
  • A daily walk through the nearest Ikea furniture complex can replace a trip to the gym.
  • It will take at least 5 years to go around all the Ikea furniture stores in the world, if you do it 8 hours a day.
  • To list the range of Ikea furniture, you will need to read aloud without interruption for two days.
  • If all Ikea furniture is collected and set on fire, then the released energy will be enough to heat a small country.
  • If you decide to sleep on a new Ikea bed every night, it will take 122 lives to sleep on the ones already made.
  • If you collect the entire wrapper with pimples from furniture packages of this manufacturer, then in order to burst these pimples, you will need the help of the entire population of the planet within a month.
  • The soundtrack to the movie "Fight Club" has a song called English. Ikea Man (literally "Ikea Man"). And in the movie itself main character talks about how he had a mania to furnish his apartment with furniture and things bought in IKEA.
  • In March 2007, a conflict broke out between the Roma community in the city of Yekaterinburg and the IKEA shopping center due to the fact that the poster on the rules for using parking and access roads stated the following: “Immediately removed from the territory shopping center security service persons on skateboards, roller skates, bicycles, as well as gypsies, homeless persons, beggars, leaflet distributors, hooligans, various informal companies.” IKEA management removed the poster and apologized. The parties came to reconciliation without going to court.
  • The name "IKEA" stands for "Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd", that is, the name of the founder and the name of the farm (Elmtaryd) in the Agunnaryd parish where he lived.
  • The names of the company's products consist of one word. Most of the names are of Swedish origin.
  • The American company - the developer and publisher of computer video games Electronic Arts has released a catalog for the line of games The Sims 2 called "Ideas from IKEA" (Eng. The Sims 2: IKEA Home Stuff)

IKEA is a Swedish manufacturing and trading group of companies, which is one of the world's largest retailers selling household goods and furniture. The company's turnover in 2016 exceeded 36 billion euros. The company has been ranked among the "World's Best Brands" for a long time (the average position in the ranking is 26th place), and in the latest ranking of the "Most expensive brands world” IKEA ranked 55th with a brand value of $18.08 billion.

IKEA was founded by Swedish businessman Ingvar Kamprad. He was born into a family of farmers, and spent his entire childhood working in agriculture. Members of the Kamprad family before him tried to run a business, but it did not bring any special dividends. But, thanks to this, since childhood, Ingvar was well versed in trade. In his youth, he tried selling matches and fish.

In 1943, having invested all his savings and borrowed money from his father, seventeen-year-old Kamprad opened an IKEA store., whose name is an acronym made up of the initial letters of his first and last name and the names of the farm and village where he was born and raised. The choice of store specialization was influenced by the situation in the country. Finding good and inexpensive household items, essentials and furniture was almost impossible.

History of the IKEA logo, image: ikea.com

Ingvar Kamprad started his activities with the sale of small household items, and the first main model of the company's work was the mailing list.

One of the first promotions The company was almost on the verge of failure. Young Kamprad decided to take a small loan and order in France ballpoint pens, which were in short supply in Sweden at the time. For a quick sale of goods, he promised everyone who came to the presentation of coffee and a bun. This proposal attracted more than a thousand people, which greatly exceeded the plans of the young businessman. Having spent a lot of money and investing a lot of effort, he fulfilled his promise. The presentation was successful and the product sold quickly.

Video: the amazing story of the founder of IKEA.

Stages of company development

First steps

Until 1948, the IKEA store was focused on the sale of small household items. During this period, Kamprad thought about expanding the business. To expand the range, he decided to choose furniture that always has a stable demand. And at that time, inexpensive furniture was considered a scarce commodity at all. The expansion of the company began with an increase in staff. Until this period, only Kamprad himself worked in the store. In 1948 he hired his first employee. By 1950, the company's staff already consisted of 4 people.

At first, the bet in the company was made on cheap furniture., which was made in small industries. Later, the approach was changed: it was decided to purchase parts and assemble the furniture on our own. Thus, it was possible to significantly reduce prices and gain popularity among customers.

In 1958, the first IKEA brand store was opened in Elmhult. Here, for the first time in Sweden, it was possible to try furniture before buying it. Such a marketing ploy at times increased the popularity of the store.

Due to difficulties with suppliers who were forbidden by competitors to do business with IKEA, in the late 50s, I. Kamprad faced a shortage of goods for sale. To solve the problem, he decided to buy goods abroad. He found all the necessary goods at factories in Poland and organized timely deliveries to Sweden.

By the beginning of the 60s, several IKEA stores were already operating in Sweden and Ingvar Kamprad began to think about entering foreign markets. It was decided to start from Norway and in 1963 a store was opened in Oslo. And by the end of the 1960s, the first IKEA store opened in Denmark.

At the same time, tableware was added to the store's product line. Also, to reduce queues, work was carried out to optimize the number and placement of cash desks.

In 1973, in order to optimize taxation, the company's center was moved to Denmark.

Beginning of active expansion

Photo: pixabay

In the 70s, the company began an active expansion of Western Europe: stores were opened in Switzerland, Germany, and France. At the end of the seventies, the work of Ingvar Kamprad's "Commandments of a Furniture Dealer" was presented to the world, which became a mandatory reading book for all employees of the company.

In the early 1980s, the first IKEA stores opened in Saudi Arabia, China and Kuwait.

And in 1985 the brand entered the US market. The first store was opened in Philadelphia. Ingvar Kamprad had doubts about the American market, but thanks to the hippie cult that was popular at the time, democratic and original IKEA stores quickly became popular.

In parallel with the conquest of new markets, the company expanded its product range. In the 1980s, IKEA introduced its first sofa.

In 1986, Ingvar Kamprad left his post as head of the company and became a consultant to the fund manager of the Stiching INGKA Foundation. CEO became Anders Muberg, who worked as Kamprad's deputy.

In the early 1990s, the expansion of the countries of Eastern and Southern Europe began. The first stores were opened in Hungary and Poland, a little later the company came to Slovakia and the Czech Republic. In 1996, brand stores opened in Spain. Also during this period, a set of rules was created that regulates the work in the company.

Work via the Internet

The IKEA store was one of the first major retailers to launch online. The company's website, which talks about its philosophy, was launched in 1997.

In 1999, the company's sales amounted to € 6 billion. 20% of the volume was provided by stores in the USA and Asia. In this regard, it was decided to intensify work in these markets.

Since the early 2000s, IKEA has been actively working to develop Asian stores and e-commerce. The first store in Japan was opened in 2006, and the chain began to develop rapidly with standard technology. The Chinese market, on which great hopes are placed, did not immediately submit. The first stores opened in the early 2000s were losing money. Only after changing the concept for this market did the Chinese chain of stores begin to develop. Today it has about 10 stores.

Video: see with your own eyes how production is set up at IKEA.

IKEA in Russia

IKEA's first attempts to enter Russian market date back to the late 1980s. Ingvar Kamprad personally negotiated and planned to create a whole complex for the production of furniture in the USSR. But no final agreement was reached.

The companies returned to the Russian direction in the late 1990s, and in early 2000, the first store was opened in Khimki. Investments in the project amounted to about $200 million. About 30,000 people visited the hypermarket on the first day. The opening of the second store attracted over 50,000 visitors.

By 2008, there were 11 brand stores in Russia, and in 2017 there were already 14 of them.

In September 2016, IKEA launched the largest furniture factory in Russia. The investment in this project is estimated at €50 million.

Main competitors

On a global scale, the Swedish retailer has virtually no competitors. In some regions and directions, IKEA competes JYSK, Metro Group, Leroy Merlin and Hoff. Only JYSK, operating in the same segment as IKEA, can be considered a direct competitor. Metro Group, Leroy Merlin and Hoff have a wider product range than the Swedish retailer, so they compete with it partially.

IKEA today

Today IKEA is formally a Dutch company. The country of registration was changed in 2012 to optimize taxation.

In 2016, the company's revenue amounted to 36.4 billion euros. To date, the company operates 389 stores around the world, which are visited by more than 900 million visitors a year. IKEA has 183,000 employees.

The priority direction of the company's development is online sales. IKEA is developing a modern technology platform that should drive sales growth in this segment.

Significant hopes are also placed on the Chinese market, which has not yet been fully developed and has significant potential for growth.

Slogan: Home is the most important place in the world
Make a house a home
Improving everyday life for the majority
Affordable solutions for better living
Not for the rich but for the wise

The company that owns the largest retail network selling furniture and various household goods. Products IKEA especially popular in Europe. It is believed that in the countries of Western Europe there is not a single house, not a single apartment, where it would not be possible to find something bought in IKEA. And although it is believed that the furniture of this brand is not too High Quality accessibility determines its popularity.

The company was founded in 1943 when the young entrepreneur Ingvar Kamprad founded the company IKEA who traded in writing instruments. He was then 17 years old. The name of the company is an abbreviation that stands for the following: initials of the creator ( I ngvar K amprad), to which Ingvar added the name of the farm on which he grew up ( E lmtaryd), located in the parish A gunnaryd (Agunnaryud), in southern Sweden. That is IKEA- this is Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd.

To say that Ingvar was a talented businessman is to say nothing. It is no coincidence that he ended up among the richest people in the world with a multibillion-dollar fortune. With a lot of effort, he managed to promote his business. Nevertheless, the Second World War had little effect on Sweden, which was essentially an ally of both the Third Reich and its opponents. Military operations were going on somewhere aside, without interfering with the daily life of ordinary Swedes.

The assortment that the company traded was constantly expanding. Mainly due to all sorts of little things, like stationery, underwear and household chemicals. The idea to do furniture came in 1948. And this furniture had to be precisely inexpensive, so that a man in the street with a low income could afford it. Having considered all this, Ingvar agreed with several small manufacturers who began to produce furniture according to his order. Success came quickly, already in 1951 the businessman acquires a small factory, where he begins to produce furniture on his own. At the same time, he begins to print his first product catalog.

And here I had to face the first problems. Furniture in those years was not a luxury, but a very expensive commodity. With his actions, Ingvar greatly interfered with other Swedish manufacturers. As a result, they managed to persuade logging companies to stop cooperating with IKEA. The other would have dropped their hands. But not Ingvar! Having considered the current situation, he began to purchase the necessary components in Poland, while also winning in price. At the same time, the idea was born to simplify the assembly and delivery of furniture as much as possible, making it a team, like a kind of designer. And although this required some effort on the part of consumers, they were satisfied, as it became much easier to deliver the purchase to their homes, and the price of it has decreased even more.

By the end of the 50s, IKEA stores began to appear throughout the country, where you could not only buy furniture and other goods, but also have a cup of coffee. And the prices were just amazing. All stores were large and were located outside the city - Ingvar “spied” this system from the American trading network Cash & Carry.

By the beginning of the 60s, Ingvar realized that his company was ripe for entering the world market. The conquest began first of the neighboring Scandinavian countries, and then of the whole of Europe.

To date IKEA is one of largest corporations retail. Her outlets located in dozens of countries around the world. It employs hundreds of thousands of people. Product catalogs are published in hundreds of millions of copies in various languages. The prices printed on them traditionally do not change throughout the year, no matter what the circumstances. many stores IKEA operate under a franchise system.

Ingvar himself is no longer the owner of the empire he created, which has been owned since 1982 by the Dutch INGKA Holding B.V., which is the parent company of a charitable (according to the poisonous statement of some journalists and analysts - pseudo-charitable) fund Stichting Ingka Foundation. It is believed that the reason why he took this step is too high Swedish taxes. The head office of the company is located in the Dutch province of South Holland (Zuid Holland) in Delft (Delft) - a town located near Rotterdam. But in general, the structure of the holding is insanely complex and confusing, it includes dozens of companies of various kinds from different founders. There is an opinion that such difficulties are deliberately created in order to minimize taxes.




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