Last updated September 2004
How IKEA is organised
Since it was first registered as a company in 1943 IKEA has grown to become
an international group of companies with business activities in approximately 44
countries. From product development and manufacturing, through purchasing and
distribution to sales via the IKEA Group’s 165 blue and yellow stores all over the
world, the work is always organised to provide the best possible link between the
needs of the customers and the potential of the manufacturers.
The founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad, started
to think about how IKEA could develop and survive
at an early stage in the company’s history. By the
time the company really began to expand, long-term
thinking, independence and security had become
firmly established as key concepts throughout the
full scope of IKEA operations. After building several
stores in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, in 1973 IKEA
opened its first outside Scandinavia in Spreitenbach,
Switzerland. The 1970s saw the company expand with
the addition of 20 stores, many of them in Germany.
Then came the 1980s and a further 40 new stores,
followed by approximately 70 more in the 1990s.
became the new owner of the IKEA Group after its
formation in 1982. The foundation donates money to
design-related causes. At present the donations go
to fund education in industrial design at the Lund
Institute of Technology in Sweden, where the Ingvar
Kamprad Design Center has been established.
The IKEA concept
The IKEA Group –
Board and Executive Management
The entire IKEA concept is owned by Inter IKEA
Systems BV, which is established in the Netherlands.
All IKEA stores are run on a franchise basis, and
the IKEA Group is the franchisee for 179 stores. The
remaining 23 stores are operated by other franchisees.
In all there are 202 IKEA stores.
The IKEA Group employs slightly more than 84,000
co-workers, and during its most recent financial year it
sold for SEK 117 billion (approximately €12,8 billion).
IKEA is owned by a Dutch foundation
Today the IKEA Group is owned by Stichting Ingka
Foundation, a Dutch-registered foundation which
The parent company of the IKEA Group, Ingka
Holding BV, is also registered in the Netherlands, and it
is here that the IKEA Group President Anders Dahlvig
and Vice President Hans Gydell work. Ingvar Kamprad
retired from his position as Group President in 1986,
but is still active within IKEA as Senior Advisor.
The supervvisory board of Ingka Holding BV consists
of Hans-Göran Stennert (Chairman), Jan I Carlsson,
Peter Kamprad, Göran Lindahl, Carl Wilhelm Ros,
Bruno Winborg. Ingvar Kamprad (Senior Advisor).
The Executive Management group for IKEA consists
of Anders Dahlvig (Group President), Hans Gydell
(Group Vice President), Thomas Blomquist, Lars
Gejrot, Mikael Ohlsson, Josephine Rydberg-Dumont
and Pernille Spiers-Lopez.
If you would like to find out more, log on to www.ikea.com