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Business Daily

How IKEA built its brand

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4796 Ratings

🗓️ 8 October 2024

⏱️ 17 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The minimalist, flat-packed furniture company has revolutionised living spaces globally.

Originating from a small Swedish farm in the 1940s, it quickly grew and gained household recognition in the 1970s and 1980s.

Today, Ikea stands as the world's largest furniture retailer.

We speak to CEO Jesper Brodin to explore Ikea's brand evolution and its ability to adapt to consumer trends over the span of eight decades.

And how realistic are its sustainability targets?

Presenter: Sam Fenwick Producer Amber Mehmood

(Image: Jesper Brodin. Credit: Getty Images/ Archive Credit: British Pathé, Homes Limited 1945)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service with me Sam Fennek.

0:07.6

Today, what began on a humble farm in rural Sweden has grown into a global household name.

0:15.0

Practicality, versatility and good value.

0:19.9

We're buying for our first flat together.

0:22.2

Like you can see in the trolley, you can't leave with just nothing.

0:25.4

IKEA has transformed living spaces around the world.

0:29.2

Like the designs, innovation, how things are moving along,

0:33.2

loads of things you can put together.

0:35.3

Quickly becoming renowned for his flat pack modern

0:38.2

Scandinavian furniture that's assembled at home. He dedicated his business and vision to people

0:45.0

within wallets. He was not interested in selling to people of affluence. You'll hear from

0:50.5

IKEA's CEO, Jesper Brodin, about how the company transformed into a global brand

0:55.7

and became the world's largest furniture retailer, achieving total revenues last year of more than $32 billion US dollars.

1:08.2

Waiting lists for house hunters are the bogey of estate agents.

1:12.2

Searchers for homes are all too familiar with the sorry answer.

1:16.1

Home hunters include, for the duration only tenants, the returning servicemen, the bombed out and the displaced persons.

1:23.2

After the Second World War, there was a significant demand for new homes across most of Europe.

1:29.1

Large-scale house building projects were initiated, but material shortages and economic constraints

1:34.8

from the war meant that the new homes were often small, practical and designed for efficiency.

1:41.6

American-style prefabricated homes became increasingly popular, as did flat-pack furniture,

1:47.6

as this newsreel from 1945 demonstrates. And while on the subject of modern fittings,

1:52.8

here's an idea from Sweden. Furniture, ready-packed and in sections delivered by post.

...

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