The firm, which remains in private ownership, racked up sales of nearly 15 billion in 2002.
There are about 12,000 products in the total IKEA product range. Each store carries a selection of these 12,000 products depending on store size. The core range is the same worldwide.
IKEA accounts for just 5 per cent to 10 per cent of the furniture market in each country in which it operates. More important is that the awareness of the IKEA brand is much bigger than the size of the company because IKEA is far more than a furniture merchant. It sells a Scandinavian lifestyle that customers around the world embrace.
The IKEA business idea is to offer a wide range of home furnishing items of good design and function, excellent quality and durability, at prices so low that the majority of people can afford them. The company targets the customer who is looking for value and is willing to do a little bit of work serving themselves, transporting the items home and assembling the furniture. The typical IKEA customer is a young low- to middle-income family.
As mentioned, IKEA's retailing, is based on a franchise system. Inter IKEA Systems B.V., located in Delft (the Netherlands), is the owner and franchisor of the IKEA concept. The IKEA Group is a private group of companies owned by a charitable foundation in the Netherlands. It is active in developing, purchasing, distributing and selling IKEA products. The IKEA experience is more than just products, however, it is a retail concept. For the concept to work all aspects must be in place. IKEA products are therefore sold only in IKEA stores franchised by Inter IKEA Systems B.V. However, most of the global product policy (including product development) and the global marketing is centralized to the Swedish part of the company, IKEA of Sweden.