PROJECT ENGLISH 4: IKEA

MEMBERS: LINA MARÍA MORENO ROMO – 2122839

LILIANA DELGADILLO – 2144555
MEYERSSON BELTRAN RODRIGUEZ-2121005

IKEA is a multinational company dedicated to make and sell furniture, objects for the home and
objects to decorate, all its products have contemporary design. The company was founded in 1943 in
Smaland province, located in Sweden. Its founder was Ingvar Kamprad, he was born on 30 March in
1926, on a small farm Elmtaryd near the village of Agunnaryd. The initials letters of his name, the
small farm, and his place of birth are the reason of the name of the company.

Kamprad began his dream when he was six years old: he began selling matches to his neighbors on
his bike; Kamprad bought these matches to wholesale and very cheap in Stockholm. Later he sold
them to retail with lower prices. Nevertheless, he was getting an excellent profit, for that reason he
decided to increase the products with seeds, postcards, Christmas decorations and pens. That is how
he registered IKEA.

In 1947 Kamprad began selling furniture; this was made by local manufactures but in 1955 these
manufacturers boycotted IKEA because their companies had lower prices, so Kamprad had to design
his own objects and furniture. During this period, he studied furniture design, self-assembly,
advertising, and he used catalogs and exhibition to reach as many people as possible.

In 1953 IKEA only had catalog sales, but the competition was hard, so Kamprad made the decision
of opening a store to exhibit all his products. The location of this store was Älmhult, in the south of
Sweden. In 1963 IKEA opened its first store out of Sweden, in Norway near to Oslo; with the pass of
the year the company was growing, but its success was the IKEA concept, this concept came from
the idea of offering an assortment of home decorations products that would be accessible to most
people. To obtain that, the company combined functionality, quality, design and value. Another clue
that IKEA had was the idea of making furniture to assemble easily and to make easier its transport.
That is why the company thought in flat packing; this kind of packing reduces the price offered to
customers. Also, this system reduces the storage space, therefore the labor costs, and it helps to avoid
some transportation damage.
Currently IKEA has stores in 52 countries around the world and in some countries has more than one.
They do not have any stores in South America. In the last years IKEA has worked with other
companies; since 2007 the company has worked in Spain with Bruguer to market its products,
Bruguer is a company of decorative paint, and since 2012 it began to sell in Europe some TV sets
made in collaboration with TLC with the UPPLEVA brand.

Despite this, the huge furniture Company has many venues around the world and has excellent sales,
these have not always been the best ones for many reasons. For that reason, we will show three
situations in which IKEA has had some crisis.

 2009: During 2009 IKEA received a lot of complains with a specific kid chair, named
Leopard. This chair was designed for babies, but the model had a problem in its gear; gear
did not fit well so kids could slide and fall. IKEA had to take the chair out of the market. This
meant a lot of money lost in the creation of this chair.

 2012: That year for the Company was not the best in their venues in Spain. This country had
many troubles with economy that year; people were having a difficult time. IKEA tried to
reduce the prices and the staff descended to a 6%. That year sells go went down in a 2, 5%,
this is more or less 1.245 million of euros.

 2017: In 2017 IKEA decided to change their providers. At the beginning everything seemed
good, but then the troubles arrived. IKEA had a specific period (48h) in which furniture had
to arrive, but because of the change of providers, stuff was arriving too late, the installations
of things was taking a lot of time and they had to answer 600,000 annual service requests and
around 180,000 assembly.

PRODUCTS

Then will be present five products to do a description and some details about its sales and impact.
The products have been selected for its striking design.
IKEA PS 2017

The chair is made with a steel structure with a coating of polyester powder; the seat is made with a
molded layer-glued wood veneer, its cover is 100% polyester and its feet are made of polypropylene.
The chair has a soft mesh fabric, so it can support your body and the chair will be more comfortable
to sit in. Another advantage that the user can obtain with this product is that the chair is lightweight
and easy to move. You can find this product in €179.

BLAMES

This chair was made with solid rubber wood, and acrylic paint; the back of the seat was made of
fiberboard, and the tray of polypropylene. This kind of chair helps babies to develop their capacity to
eat and share with all family because the height of the chair is perfect. The tray is easy to clean because
you can take off it. This product was designed for children able to sit up unaided and up to three
years old or maximum weight of 15kg. To care this product, manufacturer advises that user should
dry with a clean cloth and the tray should clean with soapy solution. This product is possible find in
the store in €49.99
DELAKTIG

This lamp was made of steel and paints for its base and the tube that support the arm of the shade;
this arm was made of steel and synthetic rubber. For the shade was used aluminum and paint. This
product was designed so that the height will be adjustable to needs of user. The light color that emits
the luminous source is warm white. The user can fix the floor lamp directly to any DELAKTING
frame using the included clamp. This product include bulb, it is LED and has duration of 25000 hours
approximately. The price of the lamp is €99.

HEDERLIG

This glass of wine broke records with its sales in Spain in 2014. In that year this cup sold 2’724.000
units. The cup was designed with the intention of giving a better experience when people drink or
taste wines, making the cup a little bit wider than normal cup. The principal characteristic of the cup
is its extra-large size that helps to retain the aroma, and, on the other hand, the glass has a large round
bowl, which helps the wine’s aromas and flavors to develop better. The price of one cup is € 0, 89.
ALKALISK BATERRIES

These types of batteries have had a great impact on sales. This, because you can use them in almost
all electronic devices such as toys, MP3s, cameras, watches, remote controls, etc. They are made of
steel and PET, in each pack of ALKALISK BATTERIES you can find 10 units. In Spain in 2014,
1'615,000 units were sold. The price of these batteries is € 0.20 and or you can buy a package for €
1.99

IMPACT

The excellent impact of the IKEA’s products is the great variety of products to decorate your home,
with the advantage that all these products are affordable for most people, not just a few. The idea of
the company was to combine functionality, quality, design and, value to obtain the IKEA’s concept.
In the latest years IKEA has decidedly committed to a more sustainable future, for that reason the
company has centered its objectives in saving resources and helping people day to day. IKEA will
bet for sustainable cotton and lighting LED, so in 2020 they have the objective of generating 100%
of the energy that they need in stores and use wood from more sustainable forests. Since 2009, the
IKEA group is committed to investing €2100 million to buy and build its own equipment to produce
solar energy and wind power.
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

IKEA began to think in social problems a few years after its foundation, its principal preoccupation
was the child labor, for that reason the company search some organizations to promote the rights and
education for childhood. IKEA has the idea of work in four essential areas in children life like: have
a place that they can call home, have a healthy start in life, have an education with an excellent quality,
and have a sustainable family income.

To keep these objectives this year the IKEA’s foundation has three campaigns:

Let´s play

The campaign is approach in the rights of children to play, this let to children learn new skills, make
more sociable, they could support of best manner stress, for all these components, play is a
fundamental right of children. The foundation search helps all children to they can play still in
difficult circumstances.

IKEA has six organizations in Asia and Africa, this are: UNICEF, save the children, room to read,
handicap international, special Olympics, and war child.

The light’s power

IKEA has collected 30,8 million of euros with this campaign, these resources are for help to the
ONU’s agency with the refugees to carry light and removable energy in refugee’s camp; these camps
are in Asia, Africa and middle east. The camps have been created like consequence of wars and
naturals disasters. IKEA had the idea of for each bulb sold, the foundation has donated 1 euro to the
agency. With this contribution is possible improve the access to illumination, renewable energy and
primary education in refugge’s camps in the places mentioned previously.

All contribution of customers and workers has reflected in:

 The IKEA foundation and organizations have given more than 56000 solar flashlights and
the installation of 720 solar streetlights to refugge’s communities in Ethiopia and Jordanian.
 Has registered more than 37000 children in primary schools of Bangladesh, Chad, and
Ethiopia, as the formation of more than 740 teachers in these countries.
 Has built 22 biogas plants in Bangladesh with which is possible generate ecologic fuel to
cook.
Cuddly toys for education

For this campaign the IKEA’s foundation, save the children, and UNICEF have donated more than
88 million of euros to educative projects designated for children for 13 years. Since 2003, the
foundation has donated 1 euro for each cuddly toy sold during the campaign in months of November
and December in 2015. All this resources permit does schools more suitable for children, and with
teachers with an excellent preparation to include all children.

IKEA invited to children of customers for design yours dream cuddly toy, the designs were make
reality and these toys were the cuddly toys sold in the store. Since 2003 IKEA’s foundation supported
100 projects in 46 countries, also helped to more than 12 million of children that live in poverty with
the objective to obtain a best education.

Everything we do is guided by these principles:

• Our support should assist people in need, primarily in the developing world, to help them make real
and lasting changes in their lives and lead them to take control of their own futures.

• Programs should reflect IKEA business philosophy of partnership, long-term focus, innovation,
creativity, constant improvement and strong ethical behavior.

• We always look to monitor and maximize the return on invested capital and improve the
effectiveness and efficiency of our support programs, so we can be sure we are doing as many we can
for as many people as possible.

Bibliography

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foundation/history/
 About the Ikea group. Recovered from :
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 Ingvar Kamprad, founder of Ikea. Recovered from: https://sweden.se/business/ingvar-kamprad-
founder-of-ikea/
 Europa press, (2010). Ikea withdraws from the sale a highchair for failures in the gear that can
cause the fall of the child. Recovered from: http://www.europapress.es/economia/noticia-
economia-empresas-ikea-retira-venta-trona-fallos-engranaje-pueden-causar-caida-nino-
20100118111846.html
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 La información, (2018). Recovered from:
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de-proveedores-genera-el-caos-en-el-reparto/6340517
 Towards a sustainable future. Recovered from :
http://www.ikea.com/ms/es_ES/about_ikea/people_and_planet/people-and-communities.html
 Huffpost (2014). Recovered from: http://www.huffingtonpost.es/2014/07/08/mas-vendido-
ikea_n_5567243.html
 Ikea foundation. Recovered from: https://www.ikeafoundation.org/faqs/