History

In 1926 founder, Ingvar Kamprad was born in Småland in southern Sweden. He is raised on 'Elmtaryd', a farm near the small village of Agunnaryd. Even as a young boy Ingvar knows he wants to develop a business. At the age of five Ingvar Kamprad started selling matches to his nearby neighbors. By the time he was seven, he started selling further afield, using his bicycle. He found that he can buy matches in bulk cheaply in Stockholm and re-sell them individually at a very low price but still make a good profit. From matches, he expands to selling flower seeds, greeting cards, Christmas tree decorations, and later pencils and ball-point pens.

Ingvar began to sell furniture five years later. The first store was opened in Älmhult, Småland, in 1958, under the name Möbel-IKÉA (Möbel means "furniture" in Swedish). The first stores outside Sweden were opened in Norway (1963) and Denmark (1969).[32] The stores spread to other parts of Europe in the 1970s, with the first store outside Scandinavia opening in Switzerland (1973), followed by West Germany (1974).[32]

In 1973, the company's West German executives accidentally opened a store in Konstanz instead of Koblenz. Later that decade, stores opened in other parts of the world, such as Japan (1974), Australia, Canada,Hong Kong (1975), and Singapore (1978). IKEA further expanded in the 1980s, opening stores in countries such as France and Spain (1981), Belgium (1984), the United States (1985), the United Kingdom (1987), and Italy (1989). Germany, with 53 stores, is IKEA's biggest market, followed by the United States, with 51 stores.

In the 1990s Children's IKEA is introduced and the focus is on home furnishing solutions to meet the needs of families with children. The IKEA Group is formed and responsibility for people and the environment is seen as a prerequisite for doing good business.

IKEA expands into even more markets such as Japan and Russia. Everything for the bedroom and kitchen is explored and presented in co-ordinated furnishing solutions. This period also sees the successes of several partnerships regarding social and environmental projects. The first IKEA store in Latin America opened on 17 February 2010 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Ingvar Kamprad developed IKEA into a furniture retailer. This period sees the exploration of furniture design, self-assembly, advertising, the use of a catalogue and a showroom to reach the many people. New IKEA stores open and hero products are developed such as POÄNG and BILLY bookcase. It is a time where concept takes shape and is documented in Ingvar Kamprad's The Testament of a Furniture Dealer.