“Ikea, the home furnishings retailer everyone appears to love to hate, has seen its profits in the UK plunge by a third.
The Swedish giant, which has been the subject of attacks from Government ministers over the construction of its stores and from unwilling shoppers who see it as a retail hell, said pre-tax profits for the year to last August dived to £104m. That is a drastic slide from the prior year when they leapt 15% to more than £150m.
The latest reporting period takes in Ikea’s disastrous opening of its Edmonton store in north London, where there were reports of shoppers acting like animals, with some hospitalised. Sales in the year rose marginally to £1.1bn. The company blamed the collapse in profits on one-off costs such as extending and rebuilding various
premises around the country…”
This Is Money UK
In the News
IKEA Edmonton, IKEA London, IKEA profits, IKEA Store Opening
STOCKHOLM, Sweden – Furniture-maker
Ikea plans to hire tens of thousands of new workers as the company
continues to expand with dozens of stores opening around the world, the
company’s chief executive officer said in an interview published
yesterday.
“We have to hire at least around 10,000 people a year to meet our
ambition of continued growth,” Anders Dahlvig, CEO of the Ikea Group,
was quoted as saying in Swedish financial daily Dagens Industri.
Ikea’s U.S. headquarters are in Plymouth Meeting, Pa.
Philadelphia Inquirer/AP
In the News
Anders Dahlvig, IKEA CEO, IKEA expansion
Photo by ibm181
IKEA LOVERS/FLICKR
© All rights reserved. Used with permission.
A recent interview I had with The New York Times’ Rob Walker is now posted in his personal blog, “Murketing“
People
IKEA on Flickr, monday cuteness attack!, murketing
“The Swedish retailer Ikea opened the doors to its latest store for a tour of
the facility.
The new Ikea in Round Rock is 252,000 square-foot, will
have 10,000 items, 50 room settings, three complete model homes, a supervised
play area and a restaurant with 250 seats.
Employees are ready for the grand opening.
Store manager Jeff O’Shaughnessy says the store’s primary objective right now is to continue hiring and training nearly 300 Central Texas
workers.
The grand opening is Wednesday, Nov. 15.”
CBS 42)
ROUND ROCK
[Note: Positive Fanatics is not officially connected with IKEA. Please visit the store website to apply.]
Store Openings
IKEA Grand Opening, IKEA Round Rock, IKEA Store Opening
One of the most common mistakes you can make when unloading a dishwasher is
to miss the puddle of water that collected on the base of cups, glasses and
other objects during the cycle, so that you splash the water in every direction
while energetically moving the items from the dishwasher to the cupboard.
Finally, someone has come up with a cup with an “anti-pooling system.”
[via Pop Gadget]
Product Updates
IKEA Design, IKEA Trofe
Swedish furniture giant Ikea’s decision to sell paintings by well-known artists was a wise move, with the warehouse’s entire stock running out in 12 minutes.
Some 6,000 paintings will be sold, 1,560 of those were bought this morning in the store’s warehouse at Kungens Kurva.
“Three of them were sold out at the same time,” said Tina Björeman, Ikea spokesman, according to Dina Pengar.
“It was Ernst Billgren, Denise Gråstein and Jan Håfström which went in five and a half minutes.
The paintings were being sold at all Ikea warehouses in the country and long lines were reported in Malmö and at Barkarby near Stockholm. Some waited all night at Kungens Kurva to buy a
painting.
“One person was here already at 10:30 p.m. and has waited all night,” said Björeman.”
The paintings are being sold for 1,695 kronor each. Shoppers have to mount the paintings themselves”
Adam Ewing
The Local
Check your local store for details
In the News
Denise Gråstein, Ernst Billgren, IKEA Art, IKEA Stockholm, IKEA warehouse, Jan Håfström, Kungens Kurva
“ROUND ROCK, Texas, Sept. 7 — IKEA, the world’s leading home
furnishings retailer, today announced that its future Round Rock, TX store will
open at 9:00 AM on Wednesday, November 15, 2006. IKEA Round Rock will be the
Swedish Company’s third store and restaurant destination in Texas and 29th in
the U.S. (The closest IKEA stores are in the North Texas city of Frisco, and in
Houston).
“Due to the significant progress made during Spring and so far
this summer, we are confident the remaining milestones and interior build-up
process will be complete by mid-November,” noted Jeff O’Shaughnessy, store
manager of the future IKEA Round Rock. O’Shaughnessy added, “now our primary
objective is to continue hiring and training the nearly 300 Central Texans who
will be joining the IKEA coworker family before we open.”
In addition to the 10,000 exclusively-designed items, IKEA Round Rock
will present 50 different room settings, three complete model homes, a
supervised children’s play area, and a 250-seat restaurant serving Swedish
specialties such as meatballs with lingonberries or salmon plates, as well as
American dishes. Other family-friendly features include a Children’s IKEA area
in the showroom, baby care rooms, preferred parking and play areas throughout
the store.”
IKEA Press Release via YAHOO News
[via Jen Segrest]
Store Openings
IKEA Co-worker, IKEA Grand Opening, IKEA Round Rock, IKEA Store Opening, ikea usa
IKEA chatbot Anna goes mano a mano with the the Army’s Sgt. STAR.
More at Radar Online
[Thanks Jen!]
Cartoons
IKEA Anna
At IKEA we are no strangers to the great and the good of the world of art.
We have been selling motifs of many artists such as Picasso and Monet. IKEA Art
Event adds a new dimension to our offer and opens the door for you, our
customers, to the world of exclusive current galleries. The artists presented in
the IKEA Art Event are individual contemporary artists working in Sweden.
This is a limited edition. Why limited? Well, why not – this is an
event afterall. Here today, gone tomorrow. This is definitely an event you don’t
want to miss! Event only in Chicago, Paramus, Philadelphia and
Conshohocken.
Announcements
IKEA Art, IKEA Chicago, IKEA Conshohocken, IKEA Paramus, IKEA Philadelphia, IKEA Schaumburg
“Good company, good names? If you are like most IKEA shoppers, you don’t
have a clue where IKEA’s bottomless well of goofy-sounding product names
comes from or what they mean. Why is an IKEA desk called Jerker? Do you want to
sleep on a bed named Gutvik? That’s not a carving knife, that’s a
Smeltpunt. Well get ready, there is a method to the apparent madness.
Items for the bathroom like Apskar (a wash basin), Toftbo (a bathroom mat),
and Sanni (a bath sheet) are named after Scandanavian lakes, rivers and
bays–that seems appropriate.
Stuff for kids is named after mammals, birds, and adjectives. So if you buy
your children a Smyg, they’re getting a lamp named for a wren. And a child’s
desk is Fartful, which of course means “speedy” in Swedish.
Chairs have men’s names like Roger and Joel and Luppio. And materials and
curtains have women’s names like Rosali and Lenda and Ingert…”
“The Naming Business: Unraveling the IKEA product naming mystery”
A Hundred Monkeys
LINK
[via Apartment Therapy]
Photo: “Truth in advertising” by somenordic-based guy @ IKEA Lovers/FLICKR
© All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Advertising & Marketing
Apartment Therapy, IKEA Names, IKEA on Flickr
