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IKEA
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IKEA is a world wide furnishing company with operations in 42 countries and
a total number of 70 000 employees of which 59 000 work in Europe. It is a
Swedish based company built on the idea to “offer a wide range of
well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low, that as
many people as possible will be able to afford them”.1 It started out in the
1940s by the entrepreneur Ingvar Kamprad2, the IKEA group is solely owned by
the Foundation through a holding company (INGKA holding B.V). It is
therefore not listed on any stock exchange. The bulk of the operations are
the retail business with 165 stores in 22 countries and a total of 75% of
the employees in this area. In addition to purchasing from outside suppliers
the IKEA group also produces some of its own furniture through the IKEA
industrial group, Swedwood. |
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COUNTRY |
EMPLOYEES |
STORES |
EWC-REP |
|
Germany |
10800 |
31 |
2 |
|
Sweden |
7100 |
13 |
2 |
|
United Kingdom |
6000 |
11 |
2 |
|
France |
4500 |
13 |
1 |
|
The Netherlands |
2800 |
10 |
1 |
|
Italy |
2500 |
8 |
1 |
|
Austria |
1700 |
5 |
1 |
|
Belgium |
1700 |
4 |
1 |
|
Spain |
1500 |
5 |
1 |
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Norway |
1400 |
5 |
1 |
|
Denmark |
800 |
4 |
1 |
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Finland |
300 |
2 |
1 |
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The
foundation is the main owner holding the shares in the holding company. The
purpose of the foundation is to support furniture design, education and
training in the area of furniture production and design etc.
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The group support functions
(Legal services, Human Resources etc) should be considered as strategic
functions for the IKEA group as a whole and are organised in IKEA Services
AB under the laws of Sweden and also the basis for the EWC regulated under
Swedish law.
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Expert
functions such as IT, food services, retail equipment etc operates under
economies of scale and is supportive to the basic operations
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IKEA
of Sweden AB is responsible for the range - design, development etc
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Inter
IKEA systems B.V (The Netherlands) owns the IKEA concept and trademark which
is bought by the retail operations but is also sold to outside operators on
a franchising basis
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The
furniture is purchased through purchasing operations (trading service
offices) in 33 countries with 1800 suppliers in 55 countries.
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From the start, in the beginning of the 1950, the company expanded in a
moderate pace up until the beginning of the 80.
From an annual
turnover of 1, 2 billion Euro in 1984 there has been a rapid development to
11 billion Euro in 2002. The biggest expansion has been in the late 90th.
The first IKEA store opened in Sweden 1958, outside Scandinavia the first
store opened in 1973 (Switzerland). In 1985 the first establishment in the
US was made, 1998 in China and 2000 in Russia.
The IKEA group is very much built on the joint concept described in the
business idea and by supplying the same kind of products world wide built on
the design of IKEA of Sweden. Also the stores are laid out in the same way –
very much due to the fact that the IKEA concept is one of effective
distribution (“flat packages”) as well as design and cost-effective material
and
production. This has also influenced a joint personnel idea formulated
as:as:as:
٭ Willingness
to take responsibilities, service-orientation, open for changes,
challenging established patterns, open and just in co-operation,
cost-conscious
٭ Working
in a growing company with human values, develop professionalism, chose
between different positions, secure and reasonable terms of employment
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An important development strategy for the group was established in 1999.
The ten jobs are a mix of economic, technological and social activities
and comprise of the following points:
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Developing a strong and vital range
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Offer outstanding sales prices
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Improve meeting with our customers
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Continue to reduce purchase prices and improve product quality
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Develop a logistic efficiency in the whole pipeline
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Attract, develop and inspire our people
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Be
one IKEA
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Become leaner, more simplified and quicker
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Take
responsibility for our suppliers, their co-workers and for the environment
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Keep
the culture of IKEA a strong living reality
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