25 IKEA Facts That Need No Assembly

25 IKEA Facts That Need No Assembly | List25

Want more? Check out the Cool Facts Playlist: you like this video subscribe to List25: is, by far, the most popular furniture retailer in the world. Started back in 1943 by a seventeen year-old Swedish boy, this store has grown into a megalithic company with revenue of almost €30 billion in 2014. With over 380 stores in 48 countries, millions of people have caught IKEA fever, flocking to the store every year to buy cheap, flat-pack furniture for their homes or to indulge in the store's range of traditional Swedish foods, especially the meatballs. While IKEA has quickly entered our homes and our hearts, there's a lot to know about this diverse company with a long history and creative marketing team.

In this list, we've assembled (pun intended) 25 facts about IKEA that you probably didn't know - facts ranging from where it gets its furniture names to some of its clever marketing campaigns including being able to spend a night in an IKEA store to the reason why its stores are designed like a labyrinth. The company continues to grow and expand year-after-year, increasing profits, lowering prices, and even building its own city. If you've ever been caught up by IKEA mania or you just want to know more about the furniture and meatballs giant, you'll love this list of 25 IKEA Facts That Need No Assembly.

Twitter: out the physical list here: buys up and uses about 1% of all commercially produced wood in the world, making them the third largest consumer of wood on the planet behind Lowe's & Home Depot.

IKEA pays one of the lowest tax rates in the world at just 3.5%. This is because the store is technically owned by a Dutch company in-turn owned by a Dutch non-profit organization. The legal structures are pretty complex, so suffice to say IKEA is technically the largest charity in the world - by net worth, not by charitable givings though.

IKEA's founder Ingvar Kamprad is the most successful Swedish entrepreneur in history. Starting out selling matchboxes, fountain pens, and nylon stockings as a kid, Kamprad began IKEA as a mail-order business when he was 17 years-old. Now one of the biggest furniture companies in the world, IKEA has revolutionized the furniture industry with its trademark flat-box furniture.

Increasing efficiency every year has allowed IKEA to actually lower its prices rather than up them year-after-year as many other retail chains do. IKEA drops its prices by around 2-3% annually.

You may have noticed the unusual names IKEA furniture has, but there's a pattern to them all. Garden furniture is named after Swedish islands, carpets after Danish place names, and fabrics and curtains after female names.

The reason IKEA products don't have product numbers is because Kamprad is dyslexic. Naming the items instead made things easier for him.

In 2012, 690 million people visited an IKEA store - almost the entire population of Europe.

One of IKEA's most clever marketing schemes was when they designed an entire house worth of furniture on a rock climbing wall. Celebrating their 30th store in France, visitors could scale the rock wall in what has to be one of the most exhilarating shopping experiences we've ever seen.

Upon entering the American market, IKEA saw their small flower vases become one of their most popular items. When they researched why the vases sold so well, they found out American consumers were using them as large tumblers.

Since 1987, over 13 million mattresses in the United Kingdom were purchased from IKEA, meaning around one in five British kids alive today were conceived thanks to IKEA bedding. On Europe as a whole, it's one in ten kids.

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