IKEA ( Swedish pronunciation ) is a Swedish privately held, international home products company that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture such as beds, chairs, desks, appliances and home accessories.

INGKA Holding B. V. owns the industrial group Swedwood, which sources the manufacturing of IKEA furniture, the sales companies that run IKEA stores, as well as purchasing and supply functions, and IKEA of Sweden, which is responsible for the design and development of products in the IKEA range.

The IKEA website contains about 12, 000 products and is the closest representation of the entire IKEA range.

All IKEA Food products are based on Swedish recipes and traditions.

IKEA uses cabinet-grade and furniture-grade MDF in all of its MDF products, such as PAX wardrobes and kitchen cupboards.

IKEA also uses wood, plastic, and other materials for furniture and other products.

Although IKEA household products and furniture are designed in Sweden, they are largely manufactured in developing countries to keep costs down.

The card is free of charge and can be used to obtain discounts on a special range of products found in each IKEA store.

Raw materials are used, and since wood and cotton are two of the most important products in IKEA production so IKEA makes the most out of every tree and cotton plant, and works with environmentally friendly forests and cotton without the excessive use of chemicals and water.

IKEA products help customers to live a more sustainable life at home.

IKEA is also currently working on developing a way to take back recycled sofas and other home furnishing products that have reached their own end of life.

IKEA recently paired up with the makers of popular video game The Sims 2 to make a stuff pack called The Sims 2 IKEA Home Stuff, featuring many IKEA products.

In March 2010, IKEA developed an event in four important Metro stations in Paris, in which furniture collections are displayed in high-traffic spots, giving potential customers a chance to check out the brand's products.

Triplex Iron Foundry then took the site over, but their ownership was short lived and it was then sold to Swedish home products company IKEA in 1988, being demolished almost immediately to make way for the superstore which opened in January 1991.

Attempting to entice him to sign with the Canucks, numerous Vancouver businesses extended Swedish-centred special offers, such as a Volvo and IKEA products.

The building was truncated in 2003 to accommodate the construction of the new IKEA home products store.

Fräck ( spelled with the umlaut ' ä ') is also the product name of a shaving mirror produced by IKEA, a multinational home products retailer.

The groups of companies that form IKEA are all controlled by INGKA Holding., a Dutch corporation, which in turn is controlled by a tax-exempt, not-for-profit Dutch foundation.

The world's five largest IKEA stores are:

Older IKEA stores are usually very large blue buildings with yellow accents ( also Sweden's national colours ) and few windows.

They are often designed in a one-way layout, leading customers counter clockwise along what IKEA calls " the long natural way " designed to encourage the customer to see the store in its entirety ( as opposed to a traditional retail store, which allows a consumer to go directly to the section where the goods and services needed are displayed ).

However, following IKEA tradition, the cashiers are only located on the lowest floor.

The vast majority of IKEA stores are located outside of city centres, primarily because of land cost and traffic access.

Another feature of IKEA stores are their long opening hours.

Although there are some notable exceptions, most product names are based on a special naming system developed by IKEA.

IKEA uses a sales technique called " bulla bulla " in which a bunch of items are purposefully jumbled in bins, to create the impression of volume, and therefore, inexpensiveness.

Of the IKEA stores in 36 countries, 235 are run by the INGKA Holding.

Stores elsewhere in the country including South Australia and Western Australia are owned by Cebas Pty Ltd. Like elsewhere, all stores are operated under a franchise agreement with Inter IKEA Systems.

The IKEA food concessions which operate in IKEA stores are still owned directly by the Kamprad family which provides a major part of the family's income.

In 2007, the Berne Declaration nominated IKEA for one of its Public Eye " awards ", which highlight corporate irresponsibility and are announced during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The main partners to IKEA Social Initiative are UNICEF and Save the Children.

The main purpose with IWAY is to make sure that the IKEA suppliers follows the law in each country where they are based.

Small stores and retail businesses were privatized between 1990 and 1994, however, greenfield investments by foreign retail companies like Tesco, Cora and IKEA had a much bigger economic impact.

The IKEA trademark and concept is controlled by a series of corporations that can be traced to the Netherlands Antilles and to the Interogo Foundation in Liechtenstein.

The INGKA Group ( not to be confused with INGKA Holding B. V .) is the biggest franchisee of Inter IKEA Systems B. V. Inter IKEA Systems B. V. is not owned by INGKA Holding B. V., but by Inter IKEA Holding S. A. registered in Luxembourg, which in turn is controlled by the Interogo Foundation in Liechtenstein.

The catalogue is distributed both in stores and by mail, with most of it being produced by IKEA Communications AB in IKEA's hometown of Älmhult, Sweden where IKEA operates the largest photo studio in northern Europe at 8, 000 square metres.

IKEA is owned and operated by a complicated array of not-for-profit and for-profit corporations.

While most IKEA stores operate under the direct purview of Ingka Holding and the Ingka Foundation, the IKEA trademark and concept is owned by an entirely separate Dutch company, Inter IKEA Systems.

Every IKEA store, including those run by Ingka Holding, pays a franchise fee of 3 % of the revenue to Inter IKEA Systems.

Rhodes features a mixture of single dwelling residential, high density residential, major retail developments such as the Rhodes Shopping Centre ( including IKEA, Coles Supermarkets, Bing Lee, Reading Cinemas and a Target variety store ), commercial, warehouse / office developments and community facilities.

IKEA is now the fifth biggest single employer in Croydon.