People are only just realising what their favourite furniture shop Ikea stands for and they’re stunned
We’ve all heard of the home furnishing company IKEA, the store offers a wide range of functional home pieces at an affordable price.
It’s safe to say going to IKEA is an event with their fixed path layout that takes customers through their store on a guided tour.
But have you ever wondered what the four simple letters actually mean?
Whether you call it eye-kea or ick-ea here’s what the letters really stand for.
It turns out the letters stand for the initials of the IKEA founder and a village he grow up close to.
IKEA is named after the initials of founder Ingvar Kamprad, Elmtaryd, the farm on which he grew up, and Agunnaryd, the nearby village.
Ingvar Kamprad’s vision started with a spark… some matches to be precise.
In 1931, the five-year-old began selling matches which, back then, was an essential item in every home.
The little entrepreneur then realised it was possible for him to sell more than just matches.
To reach as many customers as possible, he rode his mother’s bicycle to nearby farms.
Ingvar started selling fish, Christmas cards, magazines and garden seeds, items that farmers he lived close to, would usually struggle to find.
When he went to boarding school at 14, Ingvar kept a stock of pens, watches, wallets and belts under his bed to sell to his classmates.
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It wasn’t until his business started picking up that the Swedish entrepreneur enquired whether his customers were interested in buying furniture, communicating through his brochures.
The response… they absolutely were.
From then on Ingvar focused his efforts on producing affordable furniture for everyday people.
And here’s another cheeky fact: the familiar blue and yellow we all know weren’t always the store’s logo colours.
When the brand started in 1951, its main colours were brown and white.
In 1967, the brand changed its logo colours to black and white.
By 1981, IKEA’s logo was red and white.
It wasn’t until 1983 that IKEA’s logo started donning that yellow and blue colours that we are all familiar with.