Documents

Working out of a family kitchen, selling fountain pens, cigarette lighters and binders, Ingrav Kamprad at the age of seventeen started a mail-order company that he named IKEA, and worked his way to the IKEA as we know it today. In 1955 IKEA started designing its own furniture and went on to introduce self-assembly furniture in flat packs a year later, saving transport and storage costs. The first IKEA Store opened in Almhult, Sweden and went on to Norway, Denmark, Switzerland and so on, establishing IKEA worldwide with 114 branches.

Ingrav Kamprad‘s vision for IKEA was to cater to the masses and he saw the cartels of the furniture manufacturers as social problem and was against it, focusing on lowering the costs, thus, offering lower prices on the products of IKEA. As the sales took off it faced opposition from Sweden’s largest furniture retailers that constrained local supply, and eventually forced IKEA to look abroad for new sources. In its constant quest to lower prices, it developed an unusual way of identifying new sources, as explained by one of the managers that the company looks for unused production capacity. The classic examples are there of how IKEA matched products to the supplier capabilities: they had sail makers make cushions, window factories produced table frames, and ski manufacturers built chairs in their off-season and so on.

Each new store of IKEA was financed by the previous successes, and during this expansion the IKEA concept evolved and became increasingly formalized. The range expanded beyond furniture to include a full line of home furnishings products, such as textiles, kitchen utensils, flooring, rugs and carpets, lamps and plants.

Over the years IKEA faced many environmental issues like the formaldehyde emissions and the fine that followed, prompted IKEA to address broader environmental concerns more directly. Starting with forestry and identified four other areas where environmental criteria were to be applied to its business...