IKEA

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IKEA International Group

Type	Private
Founded	1943 in Älmhult, Småland, Sweden
Headquarters	Leiden, South Holland, The Netherlands
Key people	Ingvar Kamprad, Founder Anders Dahlvig, President Hans Gydell, VP
Industry	Retail (Specialty)
Products	self-assembly furniture, See section on products
Revenue	$15.425B USD ( 24%) (FY 2004)
Employees	104,000 (2006)
Website	www.ikea.com

IKEA is a privately-held, international, low-cost home products retailer that sells modern, utilitarian design furniture, much of which is assembled by the consumer. IKEA was founded in Sweden by Ingvar Kamprad and it is owned by a Dutch-registered foundation controlled by the Kamprad family. IKEA is an acronym comprising the initials of the founder's name, Ingvar Kamprad, and home village, Elmtaryd, Agunnaryd. The owner/franchiser of the IKEA trademark and the IKEA Concept is Inter IKEA Systems B.V. It has corporate offices in the Netherlands, Sweden and Belgium. The IKEA brand is owned by another company with complex ownership via several companies and foundations in several countries. Stores pay a 3% royalty on all products sold to the brand owners.

[edit] General overview

Flags at the store in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The company distributes its products through its retail outlets. The chain has 253 stores in 35 countries; most of them in Europe, and in the United States, Canada, Asia and Australia. 2006 saw the opening of 16 new stores. There are plans to open another 24 stores in 2007. IKEA is one of the few store chains to have locations both in Israel and in other Middle East nations.

IKEA is generally pronounced IPA: [iˈke.a] but in many English-speaking regions, it is pronounced IPA: [aɪˈkiːə] rhyming with the word "idea". In addition, it is generally pronounced IPA: [iˈki.a] in Taiwan and China with a Chinese name Yíjīa(宜家): literally fit for home in written Chinese, as well as right now in Cantonese

The IKEA Website, contains about 12,000 products and is the closest representation of the entire IKEA range. In 2005 IKEA reported over 275 million visitors to their websites.

[edit] History

Ingvar Kamprad, founder of IKEA

IKEA was founded in Älmhult, Sweden, in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad, then 17. The company name is a composite of the first letters in his name in addition to the first letters of the names of the property and the village in which he grew up: Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd. This acronym is incidentally similar to the Greek word οικία [oikia] (home) and to the Finnish word oikea (correct, right).

Originally, IKEA sold pens, wallets, picture frames, table runners, watches, jewelry and nylon stockings or practically anything Kamprad found a need for that he could fill with a product at a reduced price. Furniture was first added to the IKEA product range in 1947 and, in 1955, IKEA began to design its own furniture. The company motto is: "Affordable Solutions for Better Living".

At first, Kamprad sold his goods out of his home and by mail order, but eventually a store was opened in the nearby town of Älmhult. It was also the location for the first IKEA "warehouse" store which came to serve as a model for IKEA establishments elsewhere and on March 23, 1963, the first store outside Sweden was opened in Asker, a Norwegian municipality outside Oslo.

[edit] Products

IKEA furniture is well known for its modern, utilitarian design. Much of IKEA's furniture is designed to be assembled by the consumer rather than being sold pre-assembled. IKEA claims this permits them to 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 a practical point for many of the chain's European customers, where public transport is commonly used; the flat-pack distribution methods allow for easier transport via public transport from the store to a customer's home for assembly.

IKEA in Kungens Kurva, just south of Stockholm, Sweden

IKEA contends that it has been a pioneering force in sustainable approaches to mass consumer culture. Kamprad refers to the concept as "democratic design," meaning that the company applies an integrated approach to manufacturing and design (see also environmental design). In response to the explosion of human population and material expectations in the 20th and 21st century, the company implements economies of scale, capturing material streams and creating manufacturing processes that hold costs and resource use down, such as the extensive use of particle board. The intended result is flexible, adaptable home furnishings, scalable both to larger homes and smaller dwellings.

IKEA has also expanded their product base to include flat-pack houses, in an effort to cut prices involved in a first-time buyer's home. The product, named BoKlok was launched in Sweden in 1996 in a joint venture with Skanska. Now working in the Nordic countries and in UK, sites confirmed in England include London, Manchester, Leeds, Gateshead and Liverpool.^[1]

Although IKEA household products and furniture are Swedish designed, they are manufactured in developing countries to hold down costs. Very little production actually takes place in Sweden.

[edit] Product names

IKEA products are identified by single word names. Most of the names are either Swedish, Danish, Finnish or Norwegian in origin. Although there are some notable exceptions, most product names are based on a special naming system developed by IKEA.^[2]

Upholstered furniture, coffee tables, rattan furniture, bookshelves, media storage, doorknobs: Swedish placenames (for example: Klippan)
Beds, wardrobes, hall furniture: Norwegian placenames
Dining tables and chairs: Finnish placenames
Bookcase ranges: Occupations
Bathroom articles: Scandinavian lakes, rivers and bays
Kitchens: grammatical terms, sometimes also other names
Chairs, desks: men's names
Materials, curtains: women's names
Garden furniture: Swedish islands
Carpets: Danish placenames
Lighting: terms from music, chemistry, meteorology, measures, weights, seasons, months, days, boats, nautical terms
Bedlinen, bedcovers, pillows/cushions: flowers, plants, precious stones; words related to sleep, comfort, and cuddling
Children's items: mammals, birds, adjectives
Curtain accessories: mathematical and geometrical terms
Kitchen utensils: foreign words, spices, herbs, fish, mushrooms, fruits or berries, functional descriptions
Boxes, wall decoration, pictures and frames, clocks: colloquial expressions, also Swedish placenames

For example, DUKTIG (meaning: good, well-behaved) is a line of children's toys, OSLO is a name of a bed, JERKER (a Swedish masculine name) is a popular desk, DINERA for tableware, KASSETT for media storage. One range of office furniture is named EFFEKTIV, SKÄRPT (meaning: sharpened in Swedish) is a line of kitchen knives.

A notable exception is the IVAR shelving system, which dates back to the early 1970s. This item is named after the item's designer.

Because IKEA is a world-wide company working in several countries with several different languages, sometimes the Nordic naming leads to problems where the word means something completely different to the product. A well known example was the bed frame GUTVIK. As the word can be pronounced Gootfick it invites German-speaking people to understand it like gut fick which means "good fuck" in German.

Company founder Ingvar Kamprad, who is dyslexic, found that naming the furniture with proper names and words, rather than a product code, made the names easier to remember.

[edit] Store format

An IKEA Store in Singapore

Newer IKEA stores are usually very large blue boxes with few windows. They are often designed around a "one-way" layout which leads customers along "the long natural way". This layout is designed to encourage the customer to see the store in its entirety (as opposed to a traditional retail store, which allows a consumer to go right to the section that the goods and services needed are displayed). The sequence involves going through furniture showrooms, housewares (market-hall), then the warehouse (Self Serve) where one collects flatpacks for products seen in the showrooms, and then arrive at the cashier's station to make payment.

Whilst the original design involved the warehouse on the lower level and the showroom and marketplace on the upper, many U.S. and Canadian stores and all German stores differ by placing the marketplace downstairs, and some stores are single-level, bungalow-style. Some stores maintain separate warehouses to allow more stock to be kept on-site at any given time, although this occasionally results in challenges in finding the items, as well as a perception of having to queue in line twice.

The restaurant at the Bolingbrook, Illinois IKEA store

Many stores include restaurants serving typically Swedish food, a few varieties of the local cuisine, and beverages such as lingonberry juice. The restaurant area is usually the one place in the store where there are large windows. Outside of Scandinavia, these restaurants are sometimes complemented by mini-shops selling Swedish-made, Swedish-style groceries. As would be expected with IKEA, one can buy IKEA's specialty foodstuffs, such as Swedish meatballs from the store.

Most IKEA stores also offer an "as-is" area at the end of the warehouse just prior to the cashiers. Returned, damaged and formerly showcased products which are not in "as new" condition are displayed here, and sold with a discount, but also with a "no-returns" policy. In the United Kingdom, this is referred to as "Bargain Corner".

In Hong Kong, where shop space is limited and costly, IKEA has opened four outlets across the city, which are actually part of shopping malls. They are relatively tiny, compared to common "large blue box" store design, yet most of them are still in the "one-way" layout. However, the newest outlet in Telford Plaza does not follow this template, and the three independent floors can be accessed freely from each. Following IKEA tradition, though, the only cashier is located on the lowest floor.

[edit] Catalogue

Cover of the 2007 edition US Catalogue

IKEA annually publishes a popular mail-order catalogue. First published in Swedish in 1951, the catalogue is now published each summer in 55 different editions, in 27 languages for 35 countries,^[3] and is considered to be the main marketing tool of the retail giant, consuming 70% of the company's annual marketing budget.^[4]

In Europe alone the catalogue reaches more than 200 million people annually. Containing over 300 pages and about 12,000 products, it is distributed both in stores and by mail.^[5] Most of the catalogue is produced by IKEA Catalogue Services AB in IKEA's hometown of Älmhult, Sweden where IKEA operates the largest photo studio in northern Europe at 8,000 square meters in size.^[6] The catalogue itself is printed on chlorine-free paper of 10-15% post-consumer waste.

According to Canadian broadcaster, CTV, "IKEA's publications have developed an almost cult-like following online. Readers have found all kinds of strange tidbits, including mysterious cat pictures, apparent Mickey Mouse references and weird books wedged into the many shelves that clutter the catalogues." A facebook group even celebrates the male dog found in the 2007 catalogue.^[7]

IKEA also publishes and sells a regular style magazine, titled IKEA Family Live in thirteen languages which supplements the catalogue. An English language edition for the United Kingdom has been announced for February 2007 and is expected to launch with a subscription of over 500,000.^[8]

[edit] Corporate structure

Main articles: Stichting INGKA Foundation, IKANO, and Ingvar Kamprad

Bloomington, MN, USA

Despite its Swedish roots, IKEA is actually owned and operated by a complicated array of not-for-profit and for-profit corporations located in the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and several other countries. IKEA's complex corporate structure appears primarily designed to allow its founder, Ingvar Kamprad, to avoid taxation while still maintaining tight control over IKEA's operations.

The IKEA corporate structure is divided into two main parts: operations and franchising. Most of IKEA's operations, including the management of the majority of its stores, the design and manufacture of its furniture, and purchasing and supply functions are overseen by Ingka Holding, a private, for-profit Dutch company. Of the 253 IKEA stores in 35 countries, 223 are run by the Ingka Holding. The remaining 30 stores are run by franchisees outside of the Ingka Holding.^[9]

Ingka Holding is not, however, an independent company, but is rather wholly owned by the Stichting Ingka Foundation, which Kamprad established in 1982 in the Netherlands as a tax-exempt, not-for-profit foundation. The Ingka Foundation is controlled by a five-member executive committee that is chaired by Kamprad and includes his wife and attorney. ^[10]

While most IKEA stores operate under the direct purview of Ingka Holding and the Ingka Foundation, the IKEA trademark and concept is owned by an entirely separate Dutch Company, Inter IKEA Systems. Every IKEA store, including those run by Ingka Holding, pays a 3% franchising fee to Inter IKEA Systems. The ownership of Inter IKEA Systems is exceedingly complicated and, ultimately, uncertain. Inter IKEA Systems is owned by IKEA Holding, a company registered in Luxembourg. IKEA Holding, in turn, belongs to an identically named company in the Netherlands Antilles that is run by a trust company based in Curaçao. The owners of this trust company are unknown (IKEA refuses to identify them) but are suspected to be members of the Kamprad family.^[10]

[edit] Tax avoidance

The central purpose of IKEA’s intricate corporate structure appears to be tax avoidance. By funneling its profits through a nonprofit foundation and through a string of shell corporations in various tax havens, IKEA drastically reduces the tax burden it would face with a more straightforward corporate organization.

In 2004, the last year that the Ingka Holding group filed accounts, the company reported profits of €1.4 billion on sales of €12.8 billion, a margin of nearly 11 percent. Because Ingka Holding is owned by the nonprofit Ingka Foundation, none of this profit is taxed. The foundation's nonprofit status also means that the Kamprad family cannot reap these profits directly, but the Kamprads do collect a portion of IKEA sales profits through the franchising relationship between Ingka Holding and Inter IKEA Systems.

Inter IKEA Systems collected €631 billion of franchising fees in 2004, but reported pre-tax profits of only €225m in 2004. One of the major pre-tax expenses that Inter IKEA systems reported was €590m of “other operating charges.” IKEA has refused to explain these charges, but Inter IKEA Systems appears to make large payments to I.I. Holding, another Luxembourg-registered group that, according to The Economist, “is almost certain to be controlled by the Kamprad family”. I.I. Holding made a profit of €328m in 2004.

In 2004, the Inter IKEA group of companies and I.I. Holding reported combined profits of €553m and paid €19m in taxes, or approximately 3.5 percent. ^[10]

The Berne Declaration, a not-for-profit organization in Switzerland that promotes corporate responsibility, has formally criticized IKEA for its tax avoidance strategies. In 2007, the Berne Declaration nominated IKEA for one of its Public Eye “awards,” which highlight corporate irresponsibility and are announced during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. ^[11]

[edit] Control by Mr. Kamprad

Along with helping IKEA avoid taxation, IKEA's complicated corporate structure allows Mr. Kamprad to maintain tight control over the operations of Ingka Holding, and thus the operation of most IKEA stores. The Ingka Foundation’s five-person executive committee, chaired and controlled by Mr Kamprad, appoints the board of Ingka Holding, approves any changes to Ingka Holding’s bylaws, and has the right to preempt new share issues. If a member of the executive committee quits or dies, the other four members appoint his or her replacement.

Even after Mr. Kamprad dies, his heirs will have difficulty altering the operation of the Ingka Foundation. The foundations bylaws include specific provisions requiring it to continue operating the Ingka Holding group and specifying that shares can be sold only to another foundation with the same objectives as the Ingka Foundation. ^[10]

[edit] Charitable giving

The INGKA Foundation is officially dedicated to promoting “innovations in architecture and interior design”. ^[10] With an estimated net worth of $36 billion, the foundation is unofficially the world’s largest charitable organization, beating out the much better known Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has a net worth of approximately $33 billion. ^[12]

Despite its enormous wealth, the Ingka Foundation does very little charitable giving. Detailed information about its grantmaking is unavailable, as foundations in the Netherlands are not required to publish their records. But IKEA has reported that in 2004-2005, the Ingka Foundation's donations were concentrated on the Lund Institute of Technology in Sweden, and the Lund Institute reported the receipt of $1.7 million grants from the foundation during both of those years. By way of comparison, the Gates Foundation made gifts of more than $1.5 billion in 2005. ^[13]. IKEA worldwide is also linked with UNICEF as a major partner, with 1 euro from soft toys being given to UNICEF every year, which accounts for millions of dollars worth of donations. ^[14]

In the wake of the 2005 Boxing Day Tsunami, IKEA Australia agreed to match dollar for dollar co-workers donations and donated all sales of the IKEA Blue Bag to the cause. In the case of the Pakistan earthquake of 2006 Ikea Gave 120,000 blankets to the relief effort in the region ^[15]

The lack of any consistent and serious philanthropy by the Ingka Foundation suggests that its not-for-profit status is largely a tax avoidance strategy.

[edit] Community impact

IKEA's goals of sustainability and environmental design in their merchandise have sometimes been at odds with the challenges that the impact a new IKEA store can have on a community.

IKEA stores are not commonplace, particularly in the United States, where consumers anticipate a retail outlet to be fairly accessible and have a number of locations. While the stores draw consumers from far and wide, the traffic and congestion impact of a store on a particular community can be a challenge.

IKEA Barkarby, Stockholm, Sweden

When an IKEA opened in April 2000 in Emeryville, California, the traffic was so severe that traffic lights had no effect. Emeryville police were forced to manually direct traffic daily for three months.
When an IKEA opened in Tempe, Arizona in November 2004, the traffic jams on Interstate 10 were so thorough that the Arizona Department of Public Safety had to close the nearest off-ramp to the store just to spread out the traffic among other nearby off-ramps.
IKEA's most popular store in Brent Park, London has frequent traffic jams at weekends.
A new store opened in Edmonton, North London at midnight on 10 February 2005. It attracted over 6,000 visitors owing to huge opening discounts in the first three opening hours and resulted in a number of casualties as people were crushed in the rush to get into the store. The store was closed after only 30 minutes (because of the large number of customers there were inadequate security staff and police). The store was re-opened at 5pm on 11 February 2005 with no additional incident.
In Saudi Arabia three people were crushed to death in September 2004 when IKEA offered a limited number of free $150 vouchers. The IKEA store in Jeddah used to be a popular place for flirting for unmarried couples, a practice strictly forbidden by Saudi rigorous religious law. The religious police would then frequently raid the IKEA store to lecture patrons or chastise them on what is considered indecent or inappropriate behaviour.

IKEA at Atlantic Station in Atlanta, GA.

The Stoughton, Massachusetts store opened on 9 November 2005. Nearby highways came to a standstill; approaching the store from less than 1 mile coiuld take more than an hour. IKEA employees indicated that on the first Saturday of operation, the Stoughton store would have sales of $1-1.2M. Over 300,000 visitors were expected on the first weekend of operation.
IKEA was refused planning permission for a further store in England in 2004 (to be based in Stockport in Greater Manchester) by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. It applied for judicial review but lost in 2005.^[16]^[17] However, they later received permission to build a store in Ashton-Under-Lyne (Greater Manchester).^[18]
IKEA announced it would open its first city centre store in Coventry, UK in 2007 and hopes to create over 500 jobs. There are concerns that the outlet will cause traffic gridlock in the city. The construction of Coventry's IKEA is being monitored on the IKEA Coventry blog at [1].
A store that opened in Canton Township, Michigan (a suburb of Detroit) in June 2006 caused traffic jams for hours and experienced a huge crunch of people when it opened. [2]
The IKEA megastore currently under construction (as of 2005) in Brooklyn, New York is dividing the community. The section of Brooklyn where the store is being constructed is located in the neighborhood of Red Hook, which is notably isolated from major transportation arteries.
Ireland's first IKEA store to be located in Dublin has required Irish cabinet approval as it is in contravention of planning law and fears of further gridlock on the M50 motorway (Ireland).

But there are some possibly positive roles that IKEA is involved in:

All UK IKEA stores support children's charities such as UNICEF and Save the Children [3].
With UNICEF, IKEA has established over 100 "bridge schools" in India and Liberia [4].
IKEA UK also supports a number of local schools, Scout & Guide groups, hospices such as the Little Havens Children's Hospice and various other children's charities through recycling, product donations, on site collections.

[edit] Shuttle bus

As part of IKEA's global mandate to make their stores more convenient and accessible, and with community impact in mind, IKEA operates free shuttle buses at some of their stores, including:

IKEA Etobicoke and North York (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) - Ford E350 bus to and from store to Kipling (TTC) subway station
IKEA Richmond (Richmond, British Columbia, Canada) - bus to and from store to Airport Station, as well as a bus to and from store to Victoria, British Columbia [5]
IKEA Elizabeth (New Jersey, USA) - Large tour bus (60+ passengers) to and from store on weekends to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan, New York City.
IKEA Alexandra and Tampines (Singapore) - Coach (40+ passengers) from all corners of Singapore including Woodlands, Ang Mo Kio and Bukit Timah
IKEA Edmonton (North London, UK) - Small bus (25 passengers) to Tottenham Hale Tube station
IKEA Nizhny Novgorod (Kstovsky District, Russia) - bus to and from store to Maxim Gorky Square and to Avtozavodskaya subway station. [6]
IKEA Dibenko (Saint-Petersburg, Russia) - bus to and from store to Lomonosovskaya and Ulica Dibenko subway stations
IKEA Mutiara Damansara (Selangor,Malaysia) - 2 Coaches (40+ passengers) from Putra LRT (Light Rail Transport) station in Kelana Jaya, Petaling Jaya

[edit] Criticisms

Some criticisms of IKEA:

Paris Nord 2, Roissy, France

IKEA has demolished historic buildings, in at least one case for a parking lot.
In the 1990s, there were several complaints arising from IKEA's British television advertising campaigns:
- “Stop being so English”: In which a “Swedish psychologist” claims the British are uptight due to their taste in “English” furniture (complaints were dismissed).^[19]
- An advertisement where a management consultant suggests how much more furniture a company could buy, if it fired an office worker. (complaints were dismissed but IKEA voluntarily withdrew the advert)^[20]
- A campaign under the slogan, "Just pack up, ship out, find a place of your own. And for all your new things, you know where to come. Make a fresh start," got complaints that it was trivializing marriage breakups. (complaints were dismissed)^[21]
- An advertisement in which a boss tells members of his staff to smell each other's armpits.
Difficulty in following the instructions for product assembly, which rely on pictures only. However, this is another way the company saves money. Pictures are printed instead of words that would require multiple translations due to IKEA's wide international presence.
IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad was, as a teen, directly involved in the pro-Nazi New Swedish Movement (Nysvenska Rörelsen) until at least 1945, causing tensions when IKEA began opening stores in Israel.^[22] Kamprad devotes two chapters to his time in Nysvenska Rörelsen in his book, Leading By Design: The IKEA Story and, in a 1994 letter to IKEA employees, called his affiliation with the organization the "greatest mistake of his life."^[23]
Ex-Norwegian prime minister Kjell Magne Bondevik has criticized IKEA for not depicting women assembling furniture in its instruction booklets, despite the fact that many sets of instructions do, in fact, show women - though not often. The official explanation from IKEA is that depicting women at work assembling furniture could be construed as offensive in Muslim countries.^[24]
In 2004 there was controversy about the law in Ireland, restricting the maximum size of a retail outlet. The law had previously stated that no shop may exceed 6,000 m² in size. When it was revealed IKEA had the intention to build a store in Dublin the law was put up for debate as 6,000 m² was deemed far too small. In the end the law was changed to allow for retail outlets selling durable goods to be built without a limit in designated areas (providing the building itself is approved by standard planning laws). The then Minister for the Environment came under fierce criticism for what was seen as changing the law to suit one company. He defended his decision citing that if they hadn't been changed, IKEA would have most likely built a store in Northern Ireland which would be used by customers from the Republic of Ireland anyway. This would have been undesirable as in that scenario, the VAT on the goods would end up going to the UK government.^[25]
The 2007 IKEA catalog was involved in a controversy concerning a dog in the interior-front-cover photo apparently showing a surprisingly large and prominent human-looking penis, prompting suggestions that the photo may have been deliberately "Photoshopped". IKEA Canada has denied this rumour and that the "object in question" is the dog's leg.^[26] BBC Radio 1 disc jokey Scott Mills also drew attention to this photograph while on-air. The picture was posted on his show's internet forum, and Mills requested speculation from his listeners, some of whom were allegedly in an IKEA store at the time, as to whether they thought anything was unusual about the picture.^[27]

[edit] Minority views

IKEA ran a commercial widely thought to be the first commercial featuring a gay couple. It aired only once, in 1994.[7] Another commercial, featuring an interracial gay couple, was run in 2006.^{[citation needed]} It has also had other commercials targeting the gay community, as well as a commercial featuring a transgendered woman. [8]

IKEA was also named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2004 and 2005 by Working Mothers magazine. It ranked 96 in Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2006.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Design reform

As pointed out by circuit lecturer Will Novosedlik, IKEA embodies the principles of design reform begun by William Morris and John Ruskin, insofar as the company seeks to elevate public taste by providing quality goods at affordable prices.

IKEA is sometimes compared to the late design school of Bauhaus in Germany, in which art, aesthetics, and function was introduced into everyday objects in mass quantities. ^{[weasel words]}^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Refurbishments

[edit] Australia

IKEA has recently refurbished their Australian Stores. In particular, it has closed its IKEA Springwood Store in Brisbane, Queensland, and has opened a mega-store four times the size of the original at Slacks Creek, nearby suburb to Springwood. The new IKEA Logan opened 26 October 2006, celebrating with opening specials and a new catalogue with promotional advertising materials for the new store. It is the largest Ikea store in the Southern Hemisphere but is only half the size of the Ikea in Sweden. The catalogue was sent to existing clientele in the Queensland state promoting the new and only mega-store within the Queensland Region. Similar new promotional ventures have taken place in New South Wales and Victoria, including closure of four existing IKEA stores in Australia and opening of two mega-stores in the appropriate states. IKEA has just purchased a new block on land in the South Eastern Suburbs ready for the new store due to open in 2008. The site is still undisclosed but rumours within IKEA place it near the new Eastlink project

Additionally, a development application was approved by the City of Stirling in November 2006 for construction of a new store in Innaloo, Western Australia to replace the existing location in Osborne Park, Western Australia^[28]. The new store development is valued at $AUD 52 Million and will be situated on previously vacant land bounded by Ellen Stirling Boulevard, the Stephenson Avenue road reserve, the Mitchell Freeway, and Cedric Street. IKEA Australia is split into two parts, the East Coast is owned by Inter Ikea and the West, including South Australia is a franchise owned by Cebas Pty Ltd.

[edit] United Kingdom

Croydon, Lakeside, Wednesbury, Warrington and Gateshead stores have recently undergone refurbishment to expand the store both internally and externally. Some have had mezzanine floors fitted to rehouse their showrooms, leaving the lower floors with expanded 'Self-Serve' and 'Market Place' areas, larger customer returns areas and new customer and staff restaurants.

[edit] IKEA's debut in each country

Year	Country	Location	Notes
1958	Sweden	Älmhult	Currently 16 stores, Sweden has the worlds largest IKEA (outside Stockholm 55,200 m2)
1963	Norway	Asker (Nesbru)	Currently there are 5 Ikea stores in Norway.
1969	Denmark	Copenhagen (Ballerup)	Moved to Høje Tåstrup circa 1979
1973	Switzerland	Zürich (Spreitenbach)
1974	Germany	Munich (Eching)	41 stores, biggest market
1974	Japan	Kobe	This was a joint venture with a Japanese department store. It withdrew from the market in 1986 because of stagnant sales; an IKEA opened in Funabashi, Chiba in 2006 that included a distribution partnership with the Mitsubishi Corporation under the supervision of prominent account executive, Ai Kobayashi-Boswell
1975	Australia	Sydney (Artarmon)	Closed 2005, in preparation for a new & larger store in Rhodes which is now open and trading as of 2005/2006.
1975	Hong Kong	Kowloon (Tsim Sha Tsui)
1976	Canada	Dartmouth, Nova Scotia (Burnside Park)	This was IKEA flag ship store in Canada. IKEA was open on Sundays, which was illegal in Nova Scotia until autumn 2006. The Government forced IKEA to close on Sundays in 1988, and IKEA responded by closing its Dartmouth store a few months later in 1988, and moved its operations to the Quebec City store. IKEA vowed it would never return to Nova Scotia^{[citation needed]}.
1977	Austria	Vienna (Vösendorf)	There are currently 6 IKEA stores in Austria.
1978	Singapore	Sixth Avenue later Katong	A store at Alexandra (Queenstown) and a second one in Tampines.
1978	The Netherlands	Sliedrecht	New stores opened in Breda and Barendrecht, old store in Sliedrecht closed in 2006
1980	Spain	Gran Canaria (Las Palmas)	Now there are 11 stores in Spain, Canarian Islands and Balears.
1981	Iceland	Reykjavík	New store opened in Garðabær in October 2006, old store closed
1981	France	Paris (Bobigny)
1983	Saudi Arabia	Jeddah
1984	Belgium	Brussels (Zaventem and Ternat)
1984	Kuwait	Kuwait City
1985	United States	Philadelphia	The first IKEA store in the U.S. was built in Plymouth Meeting and has since moved about 2 miles away to a larger location, and as of June 25, 2006, the first building still sits empty. There are currently 29 IKEA stores in the U.S. A Southern California-based chain, STØR, was opened in 1987 and was sued by IKEA for copying the layout of their stores, as well as their catalogs^{[citation needed]}. IKEA acquired STØR in 1992^{[citation needed]}.
1987	England	Warrington, Cheshire	This has always been shown on the IKEA website as their Manchester site although it isn't actually in Manchester. There are 12 stores in England, with the most recent in Ashton-under-Lyne, which is in Greater Manchester. A 13th store is currently under construction in Coventry city centre. ^[29].
1989	Italy	Milan (Cinisello Balsamo)
1990	Hungary	Budapest	Currently Budapest has two stores.
1991	Poland	Warsaw (Janki)	Currently Warsaw has two stores (Janki & Targówek). Also, there are IKEA stores in Gdansk, Wroclaw, Katowice, Krakow and Poznan.
1991	Czech Republic	Prague (Budějovická)	There are two IKEA stores in Prague - one at Zličín and one at Černý most. In Czech Republic there are two more shops - in the second largest city of CZ Brno and in Ostrava. The first original store at Budějovická - Prague 4 was abandoned. Both Zličín and Černý most are located at the periphery of Prague and at the endstations of underground line B.
1991	United Arab Emirates	Dubai
1992	Slovakia	Bratislava	Original store was closed upon the opening of a new store located in the Avion Shopping Park.
1994	Taiwan	Taipei
1996	Finland	Espoo	New store in Vantaa in 2005
1996	Malaysia	Bandar Utama	Re-located to Mutiara Damansara in 2003
1998	China	Beijing
1999	Scotland	Edinburgh	In 2001 a second Scottish store was opened in Glasgow.
2000	Russia	Moscow (Khimki)	Currently there are 3 IKEA stores in Moscow (Khimki, Teply Stan and Belaya Dacha), 2 IKEA stores in St. Petersburg (Parnas and Dybenko), stores in Nizhny Novgorod, Ekatherinburg and Kazan. There are also 8 MEGA malls developed by IKEA (3 in Moscow, 2 in St. Petersburg, in Nizhny Novgorod, Ekatherinburg and Kazan). IKEA stores and MEGA malls in Novosibirsk, Samara, Rostov, Volgograd, Krasnodar, Ufa are under construction now. Opening in 4Q 2007 – 1Q 2008
2001	Israel	Netanya
2001	Greece	Thessaloniki	First Store opened in Thessaloniki, October 24, 2001. Second Store opened in Athens, April 23, 2004. A third Store, also in Athens, is currently under construction
2003	Wales	Cardiff
2004	Portugal	Lisbon
2005	Turkey	Istanbul	Second store opened at April 6, 2006 in Izmir.
2007	Romania	Bucharest (Băneasa)	26,000 square meter store opened March 21st, 2007 in Baneasa "Feeria" Shopping Center^[30]
2007	Cyprus	Nicosia (Strovolos)	Store is under construction and is expected to open in the summer of 2007
2007	Northern Ireland	Belfast (Holywood)	IKEA granted planning permission for 29,000 square meter store. Store planned to open November 2007.^[31]^[32]
2008	Ukraine	Kiev	The first ukrainian IKEA store and MEGA mall will be open in 1Q 2008 in Kiev
TBA	Republic of Ireland	Dublin (Ballymun)	Approved by the government.^[32] Store intended to open in 2007 but due to conditions currently imposed by the local authority, it may open much later. ^[33]^[32]
TBA	New Zealand	Auckland	IKEA is reported to be looking for a site in Auckland to open New Zealand's first store. ^[34]