CityPages Kuwait June 2016 Issue June 2016 | Page 51

be called Agunnaryd.
Each item is named with actual Swedish words - Since Kamprad
was dyslexic, he named products using proper names and words,
because it made them easier for him to identify. IKEA's curtains
are given mathematical geometrical terms, and bathroom
products are named after lakes, rivers and bays.

young blond Scandinavian girls who reportedly all had legs up
to their armpits. This was something my father confirmed on
his return.
When I, too, had the opportunity to visit Stockholm with my
work, I discovered at first-hand the icy winter weather; cars with
studded winter tyres and regular tyres dressed with chains, that
created quite a noise on the road surfaces; and alcohol prices
that would discourage even the most avid drinkers.
But it was the 1970s and 1980s that launched the two most
famous and long-lasting Swedish exports into the global arena.
In 1974, Swedish pop group ABBA won the Eurovision Song
Contest with their song Waterloo. ABBA are among the few
Eurovision winners to have achieved international superstar
status, with a succession of top hits that continue to be played
at clubs and on radio stations to this day. Their music also
spawned the popular Mamma Mia! Live stage musical and the
feature film of the same name.
And then, in the 1980s, a new concept of furnishing store
opened in a town near to my home, causing quite a stir. Housed
in a large warehouse building painted in bright blue and yellow
colours, IKEA had arrived in the UK. Whilst Scandinavia had
long-since been viewed as a creator of contemporary furnishing
style, this new-to-the-UK brand brought such style to the masses
at affordable prices. I was an instant fan. I quickly became a fan,
too, of the meatballs with Lingonberry sauce that they served in
their restaurant (but that’s another story).
So there you have it, everything you need to know about Sweden.
Well, not quite. I recently uncovered some interesting facts that
I didn’t know about IKEA and would like to share these with
you. For instance, did you know that IKEA sells houses? Or that
the name of the store isn’t actually a Swedish word?
IKEA might be well on its way to global domination, but did
you know these interesting facts about this much-loved home
interiors company?

The average size of an IKEA store is 300,000 square feet - the
equivalent of 42 tennis courts. The world's largest IKEA is in
Stockholm and covers a whopping 594,000 square feet.
The IKEA catalogue goes out to 180 million people annually in 29
different languages - It's been in existence since 1951 and takes
up nearly 70% of the company’s marketing budget.
IKEA sells ENTIRE houses - The company actually sells flat-pack
houses for a fraction of the cost of a regular home – with no
estate agent required. The BoKlok House was launched in
Sweden in 1996. BoKlok is a home concept based around the
idea of 'modern homes for the masses'.
IKEA beds are reportedly good baby makers - An estimated one out
of every 10 Europeans is conceived in an Ikea bed.
The Iconic Billy the bookcase - IKEA manufactures 15 Billy
bookcases per minute and had sold more than 41 million units
by Billy's 30th anniversary in 2009 which, if you laid them all
out in a line, would be over 70,000 kilometres long.
It has been estimated that 1% of the Earth's wood supply is used by
IKEA – That’s a lot of trees!
IKEA has sold more than 11.6 billion Swedish meatballs in the UK
alone (and not all of them ended up in my stomach - honest!) Kamprad first opened a restaurant in an IKEA store in 1960 after
he realised that although a lot of people visited the shop, too
many left without buying anything because they were hungry.
IKEA enjoyed a €1.46 billion food turnover in 2014.
IKEA employs 147,000 people - They call t hem co-workers.
IKEA is verging on global domination - The IKEA group has
operations in 42 countries worldwide. In 2014, they recorded
716 million store visits, 1.5 billion visits to Ikea.com and 46
million visits to their online apps.
Enough said? I’m off to find a leggy blond to help carry my
flatpack Billy to the family Volvo.

The company was founded way back in 1943 - Ingvar Kamprad
was just 17 years old when he launched IKEA as a mail-order
sales business that originally sold only small items, like picture
frames.
The first piece of flat-pack furniture wasn't sold until 1956 - Flatpack furniture was invented in Sweden by Gillis Lundgren (who
designed the iconic Billy bookcase), a draughtsman hired by
Ingvar Kamprad. When he couldn't fit a wooden table into the
trunk of his car, he decided to pull off the legs to make it fit.
The first item of IKEA flat-pack furniture was the Lovet, a leafshaped side table, which first appeared in the 1956 catalogue.
The name IKEA is actually an acronym - The name comprises the
initials of the founder's name, Ingvar Kamprad, the farm where
he grew up, Elmtaryd, and his home village, which happens to
CITYPAGESKUWAIT.COM

51