Chapter 1: History

In 1943 in Sweden, Ingvar Kamprad started IKEA whose IK stands for his initials of his name and E for the name of his family's farm and A for the name of the village(Agunnaryd).
At first, IKEA did not sell furniture but ballpoint pens which were stored in his family farm and delivered by the family's milk van.
In 1948, it began to make stylish and modern furnitures that is main products IKEA sells now. Later, IKEA Catalog was destributed and its first IKEA store was open in Almhult, Sweden. IKEA restaurant was added in the store after two years.
After that, IKEA started to emphasize its affordable price and quality which is one of IKEA's biggest strengths right now. Also, it has began to design and sell its products by itself so its products have become more coherent, and its cheap price was maintained despite of increase in price of materials. In addition, as IKEA's noted another characteristics, its products have become easily removable and washable.

Nowadays, IKEA has opend over 300 stores in more than 35 counties. Some stores have up to 10,000 different products available to sell. Undoubtedly, IKEA is the most popular furniture store company in the world.

Here is IKEA's Mission Statement.