Things I didn't know about Ikea

I have been exposed to a little too much Ikea lately. It seems that in Sweden every student room, hostel and most of the public spaces are full of Ikea furniture. Then last week when I had to pick a subject related to Sweden for the talk that I'm going to hold in my Swedish class tomorrow. So I panicked and picked Ikea.



Here are covers of Ikea catalogues from 1958 and 1962. Pretty retro! There are many more to find at the catalogue cover archive.


Here are some new things I've learned:

• Ikea was founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad who was at the time 17 years old.
• The name IKEA comes from the founder's initials and the first letters of Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd, the farm and village where he grew up.
• IKEA originally sold pens, wallets, picture frames, table runners, watches, jewellery and nylon stockings.
• Last year there were pressed 175 million Ikea catalogs in 27 languages and 458 million people visited Ikea.
  
• Ingvar Kamprad is estimated to be among 4 richest people in the world. He is also said to have raised funds for a pro-Nazi group in Sweden during the World War II.
  
• Before 2006 the worl's biggest Ikea was one of the stores in Stockholm but now it is the one opened in Bejing, China.
  
• World's northernmost Ikea (65.50 N) is in Haparanda, Sweden.