00:00If you're like me, then there's a good chance that you've heard of IKEA.
00:03But how much do you really know about the company?
00:06What's the story behind the brand, and why has it become such a massive success?
00:11Well, that's what we're going to find out today, because this is the story of IKEA.
00:16IKEA was founded in Sweden in 1943 by a man named Ingvar Kamprad.
00:22It was the beginning of World War II, and Ingvar was just 17 years old
00:26when he started the business from his family farm.
00:29His business partner was his father, who had experience as a carpenter.
00:33And together, they made up the first two employees of the company.
00:36They started off by selling pens, wallets, watches, and other small goods
00:41that Ingvar purchased from wholesalers in neighboring countries.
00:44For a few years, their business operated without a formal name.
00:48But in 1948, Ingvar finally decided to come up with a brand, and he chose the name IKEA.
00:54This came from the first letters of his first and last names, Ingvar and Kamprad,
00:58but it also came from the first letters of the farm where he started the business,
01:02which was called Agunarids.
01:04In 1951, Ingvar opened the first retail location for IKEA,
01:08but this didn't go very smoothly, because it turned out that a different company in the same city
01:13already had the rights to use the IKEA name.
01:16So, until the dispute could be settled, Ingvar ran the store under his own name.
01:21Eventually, though, he got the rights to the name, and over the next decade,
01:25he opened several more stores throughout Sweden.
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