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Learn more: Customers line up to be among the first at IKEA’s newly opened £450 million Oxford Street flatpack store
For many years, enthusiasts of flat-packed furniture throughout the UK have enthusiastically shared tales of their most recent IKEA acquisitions, be it a Billy bookshelf or a Malm drawer unit.
However, it seems we have all been misunderstanding it entirely.
Chief Executive Officer Jesper Brodin was commenting
Sky News
Following the grand opening of the Flatpack Giants’ new £450 million flagship store on Oxford Street.
He quipped, “Feel free to express yourself however you wish, but the correct Swedish pronunciation would indeed be ‘eh-kay-ah’.”
I’ll mention that the founder established the company at the age of 16. When registering, he hadn’t yet decided on a name for the business. As a result, they used his initials: Ingvar Kamprad.
‘That is “ee” in Swedish, which means “eye” in English. Elmtaryd, the farm where he came from, and Agunnaryd, were both located within the same county.’
‘Thus, IKEA represents the individual in question and his origins.’
The pronunciation controversy arises as IKEA unveils its highly anticipated Oxford Street store today.
The £450 million project, which has been postponed twice, is now underway.
seen by retail and council bosses as a crucial part of restoring Oxford Street to its former glory as one of the world’s premier shopping destinations.
The establishment has taken over the previous Topshop location in the city center to launch a three-story store offering approximately 6,000 items. Customers will have immediate access to about 3,500 of these products, with the remaining options available through home delivery, click-and-collect services, or pickup at designated lockers and locations.
Images from the launch event depict team members wearing yellow and blue shirts, enthusiastically waving the flags of the United Kingdom and
Sweden
to welcome shoppers as they enter.
London
Mayor
Sadiq Khan
was also present to cut the ribbon and formally inaugurate the opening of the shop’s doors for the very first time. He greeted the staff with a smile, surrounded by balloons.
Nevertheless, there has already been considerable doubt about how shoppers will manage to carry their purchases back home, since there is no parking available.
Therefore, you must be capable of transporting your purchases — this means each of the 3500 products available in the store should have a weight under 15 kg and a length not exceeding 150 cm.
This marks the second UK high street outlet for the company; their initial store opened in Hammersmith back in 2022, a move they highlighted as a significant step towards implementing their plan to grow within urban centers through more compact locations, thereby enhancing customer convenience.
A new downtown location in central Brighton is scheduled to launch this summer, with plans for an additional trio of smaller outlets opening later this year in Chester, Harlow, and Norwich.
The firm mentioned it has particular focuses in regions such as London, the Midlands, and the North West, though it hasn’t announced any new sites at this time.
Ingvar Feodor Kamprad was born on March 30, 1926, in Pjätteryd, Sweden, to parents who were humble farmers.
He was dyslexic but unusually bright and, aged five, was already a budding tycoon, selling matchboxes, Christmas cards, pens, wall hangings and berries he’d picked in the forests.
When he was only 16 years old, he started IKEA by utilizing funds provided by his father as recognition for his persistent efforts to get things done, even though he had dyslexia.
Before long, he started placing ads in newspapers, selling furniture through mail orders and delivering them to the station via the milk cart.
In 1953, he owned a showroom, yet in 1956, witnessing deliverymen remove a table’s legs for easier transportation sparked his idea of flat-packed furniture, transforming the industry entirely.
Ikea took off like a rocket. Meanwhile, his first marriage, to Kerstin Wadling, foundered after ten years and, in 1963, he married Margaretha Sennert, with whom he had three sons, Peter, Jonas, and Mathias.
By the Sixties there were Ikeas all over Scandinavia. When rivals tried to organise a boycott by his suppliers, he moved to Poland for materials and manufacturers and cut costs further.
Following this, the Ikea revolution became inevitable. The first American Ikea location – situated close to Philadelphia – debuted in 1986. One year thereafter, the inaugural British outlet opened its doors in Warrington (as of late 2018, there were expected to be 22 stores across the United Kingdom). Subsequently, Ikea expanded into Russia and China as well.
The next time you find yourself looking at self-assembled furniture or grabbing a fresh light fixture, keep this in mind: it’s Ee-kay-uh!
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