IKEA Quiz: Do You Really Know IKEA?

IKEA did not begin as a furniture company. When it was registered, it was a small mail-order trading business selling everyday items like pens, wallets, and nylon stockings. Furniture was added to the range a few years later and eventually became the entire focus of the business.

The name IKEA is built from four initials, each drawn from something personally connected to its founder. Two come from his own name, one from the farm where he grew up, and one from the small Swedish village he called home during his childhood.

IKEA traces its roots to a rural region known for resourceful people who made the most of very little. The founder grew up on a farm in this country and used a small sum of money gifted by his father for doing well in school to start the business.

Ingvar Kamprad showed early signs of entrepreneurial drive. As a young boy he sold matches and fish to neighbours. By the time he formally registered his trading company, he was still a teenager. His father rewarded his good academic results with the money used to start the business.

After establishing itself across Sweden, Norway, and Denmark during the 1960s, IKEA made its first move beyond Scandinavia in the early 1970s. The country it chose was in continental Europe and served as the starting point for what would become a global retail expansion over the following decades.