IKEA

IKEA is a Swedish home furnishings retailer. It has 202 stores in 32 countries, most of them in Europe, the rest in the United States, Canada, Asia and Australia. More than 20 are scheduled to open during 2005. IKEA is one of the few store chains to have locations in Israel as well as in other nations in the Middle East.

Corporate structure

Despite IKEA's Swedish roots, the owner/franchiser of the IKEA concept is a Dutch company, Inter IKEA Systems BV. The operator/franchisee of the majority of the stores worldwide is a separate entity, the IKEA Group, a private group of companies owned by a Dutch charitable foundation.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Of the 202 IKEA stores in 32 countries, 180 are run by the IKEA Group. The remaining 22 are run by franchisees outside of the IKEA Group.http://www.ikea-group.ikea.com/about_ikea/organized.html

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

INGKA Holding BV is the ultimate parent company for all IKEA Group companies, including the industrial group Swedwood. INGKA Holding BV is wholly owned by Stichting INGKA Foundation, which is a foundation registered in the Netherlands.

Related Topics:
Swedwood - INGKA Holding BV - Stichting INGKA Foundation - Netherlands

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

This complicated structure is seen by some as an attempt to avoid Sweden's high taxation at the time. Another reason could be to make it difficult to acquire IKEA.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~