IKEA

IKEA is a Swedish company registered in the Netherlands that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture (such as beds, chairs, and desks), appliances and home accessories. Over  500 million customers visit an IKEA each year, making it the world’s largest furniture provider. The company is known for its modern architectural designs for various types of appliances and furniture, and its interior design work is often associated with an eco-friendly simplicity. 

Ingvar Kamprad founded IKEA in 1943 as a mostly mail-order sales business. It began to sell furniture five years later. The first Möbel-IKÉA store was opened in Älmhult, Småland, in 1958, while the first stores outside Sweden were opened in Norway (1963) and Denmark (1969). The stores spread to other parts of Europe in the 1970s, with the first store outside Scandinavia opening in Switzerland (1973), followed by Germany (1974). Amid a high level of success, the company's German executives accidentally opened a store in Konstanz in 1973 instead of Koblenz. The first IKEA store in Poland was opened 1991.

IKEA has almost 300 stores in 36 countries and 42 distribution centers in 18 countries and over 1000 suppliers. It takes five factories across Europe to manufacture IKEA’s 10,000 item product line. Associates create 30 million tables, desks, and wardrobes each year. Zbaszynek, Poland is home to the company’s largest wood production plant since 1961. There are 8 IKEA stores in Poland. Six new stores are to be opened in the upcoming years: in Zabrze, Rzeszów, Lublin, Częstochowa, Szczecin, and Bydgoszcz.