IKEA Brent Cross

IKEA is a Swedish home furnishings retailer.

The company distributes its goods through its retail outlets, which sell contemporary furniture; IKEA is unique in that most of its furniture and accessories are made with the idea that the purchasers assemble the goods themselves.

The chain has 235 stores in 34 countries; most of them in Europe, the rest in the United States, Canada, Asia and Australia. More than 20 stores opened during 2005. IKEA is one of the few store chains to have locations both in Israel and in other Middle Eastern nations.

IKEA is generally pronounced (IPA /i’ke.a/) but in many English-speaking regions, it is pronounced (IPA /a?’ki:?/) rhyming with the word “idea”.

The IKEA Catalogue, containing about 12,000 products, is printed in 160 million copies (2006) worldwide, and distributed free of charge, through mail and stores worldwide.

The IKEA Catalogue appears to meet or exceed the Bible (estimated at 53 to 100 million copies) in number of copies printed annually.