History of IKEA

Ingvar Kamprad founded IKEA in 1943 as a mostly mail-order sales business. It began to sell furniture five years later.

The first Möbel-IKÉA store was opened in Älmhult, Småland, in 1958 (Möbel means "furniture" in Swedish).

The first store outside Sweden was opened in Norway (1963).

The first store outside Scandinavia opening in Switzerland (1973).

The Total Annual revenue of the Ikea Group worldwide in 2001 was 10.4 billion euros.

The Total Annual revenue of the Ikea Group worldwide in 2002 was 11 billion euros.

The Total Annual revenue of the Ikea Group worldwide in 2003 was 11.4 billion euros.

The Total Annual revenue of the Ikea Group worldwide in 2004 was 12.9 billion euros.

The Total Annual revenue of the Ikea Group worldwide in 2005 was 15 billion euros.

The Total Annual revenue of the Ikea Group worldwide in 2006 was 17.5 billion euros.

The Total Annual revenue of the Ikea Group worldwide in 2007 was 20 billion euros.

In 2008, IKEA paired up with the makers of video game The Sims 2 to make a stuff pack called IKEA Home Stuff, featuring many IKEA products. It was released on 24 June 2008 in North America and 26 June 2008 in Europe. It is the second stuff pack with a major brand, the first being The Sims 2 H&M Fashion Stuff.

In August 2008, IKEA also announced that it had created IKEA GreenTech, a €50 million venture capital fund. Located in Lund (a university town in Sweden), it will invest in 8–10 companies in the coming five years with focus on solar panels, alternative light sources, product materials, energy efficiency and water saving and purification. The aim is to commercialise green technologies for sale in IKEA stores within 3–4 years.

On 8 August 2008, IKEA UK launched a virtual mobile phone network called IKEA Family Mobile, which ran on T-Mobile. At launch it was the cheapest pay-as-you-go network in the UK.

In November 2008, a subway train decorated in IKEA style was introduced in Novosibirsk, Russia. Four cars were turned into a mobile showroom of the Swedish design. The redesigned train, which features colourful seats and fancy curtains, carried passengers until 6 June 2009.

The Total Annual revenue of the Ikea Group worldwide in 2008 was 21.5 billion euros.

On 23 February 2009, at the ECOSOC event in New York, UNICEF announced that IKEA Social Initiative has become the agency's largest corporate partner, with total commitments of more than US$180 million.

The Total Annual revenue of the Ikea Group worldwide in 2009 was 21.8 billion euros.

The company later expanded into more countries in the 1990s and 2000s. The first IKEA store in Latin America opened on 17 February 2010 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

The Total Annual revenue of the Ikea Group worldwide in 2010 was 23.5 billion euros.

On 17 February 2011, IKEA announced its plans to develop a wind farm in Dalarna County, Sweden, furthering its goal of using only renewable energy to fuel its operations.

The Total Annual revenue of the Ikea Group worldwide in 2011 was 25.2 billion euros.

The Total Annual revenue of the Ikea Group worldwide in 2012 was 27.6 billion euros.

In February 2013, IKEA announced it had pulled 17,000 portions of Swedish meatballs containing beef and pork from stores in Europe after testing in the Czech Republic found traces of horsemeat in the product. The company removed the Swedish meatballs from stores' shelves on 25 February 2013, but only made the announcement public after Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet uncovered what happened.

Since March 2013, IKEA has stopped providing plastic bags to customers, but offers reusable bags for sale.

In June 2013, Ingvar Kamprad resigned from the board of Inter IKEA Holding SA and his youngest son Mathias Kamprad replaced Per Ludvigsson as the chairman of the holding company. Following his decision to step down, the 87-year-old founder explained, "I see this as a good time for me to leave the board of Inter IKEA Group. By that we are also taking another step in the generation shift that has been ongoing for some years."

The Total Annual revenue of the Ikea Group worldwide in 2013 was 28.5 billion euros.

Complaints arose from a group of consumers on IKEA's pricing policy in South Korea: the prices of certain products were higher than other countries. On 24 November 2014, Jang Duck-jin, head of the Fair Trade Commission's consumer policy bureau, told the media that the Commission was planning to commission a consumer group to compare IKEA's product prices by country.

The Total Annual revenue of the Ikea Group worldwide in 2014 was 29.3 billion euros.

On 19 March 2015, the Consumers Union of Korea published a report comparing the prices of 49 IKEA products in South Korea and other countries.

In July 2015, IKEA, with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, through the company's Safer Homes Together advertising campaign, issued a warning in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland to customers to secure the Malm chests of drawers and wardrobes firmly to the wall using free kits distributed by the company, after two deaths of young children in the U.S. in February and June 2014 when the furniture pieces tipped over on them.

In June 2015 the network announced that "IKEA Family" would cease to operate from 31 August 2015.

The Total Annual revenue of the Ikea Group worldwide in 2015 was 32.7 billion euros.

In June 2016, after a third toddler died in the U.S., IKEA recalled all Malm dressers as well as several similar models which posed a tipping danger if not secured to the wall with the supplied kit.

On 12 July 2016, bowing to two weeks of rising pressure in China, IKEA announced that it was extending this recall to that country, which - along with Europe - was initially excluded from the recall. Over 29 million dressers have been recalled. IKEA has settled wrongful death lawsuits for over $50 million in compensation to the families of the three children who were killed.

The Total Annual revenue of the Ikea Group worldwide in 2016 was 35.7 billion euros.

In 12 September 2017, IKEA announced the augmented reality app, IKEA Place, following by Apple's release of its ARkit technology and iOS 11. IKEA Place helps consumers to visualize true to scale IKEA products into real environment.

The Total Annual revenue of the Ikea Group worldwide in 2017 was 36.3 billion euros.

Founder Ingvar Kamprad died on 27 January 2018.

The Total Annual revenue of the Ikea Group worldwide in 2018 was 37.05 billion euros.