Ikea's recipe for success

Across the world, couples and families queue up to get inside, queue up to buy cheap flat-pack furniture and then queue up to eat Swedish meatballs in the cafe.

It is Ikea - which is a Scandinavian icon, but is also the butt of endless jokes about queuing, and finding that your one vital prospective purchase is...out of stock.

The company is the world's biggest furniture retailer, and despite the downturn its sales in 2008 amounted to $30bn - a rise of seven per cent.

Founding influence

However, it doesn't release details of its profits, because it is a private company. In fact, there's been criticism of its ownership structure, based in the Netherlands - some argue it's opaque and secretive.

Ikea was founded in the 1940s by Swedish entrepreneur Ingvar Kamprad. And the founder is very influential, according to Robert Gelmanovski from the Nordic Brand Academy.

Environmental impact

Ikea's not immune to the economic malaise. The number of store openings has been slowing down, and there've been some reductions in the workforce.

The chief executive is Anders Dahlvig, who has been in the job for ten years - he steps down this September.

In that last decade, the company's grown fast and committed itself to various environmental targets. So first, does he see a trade-off between profits and sustainability?

First broadcast on Business Daily on 17 June 2009