An Unlikely Hero
TODAY I'm taking a day off! Madness I know, I think I've forgotten how to do anything but ride a bike but I still just about remember how to stand upright and walk around I'm in the town of Almhuit, birthplace of a brand that I'm fairly certain has impacted your life and has definitely impacted mine, IKEA. Now I'm not big on brands, there are some I like and some I avoid but I've never craved the Louis Vuitton bag or eyed designer shoes. I think I can honestly say if I won the lottery I'd spend the money on other things than watches or handbags (not better, just differently) but the brand of IKEA is a remarkable one and one that in some ways has changed the world. It bought flat pack, available today and affordable furniture to millions. Ikea came to Britain in 1987 meaning I did at some point live in a home free of Ikea products but I don't remember doing so. To me it has always been the place to go for home furnishings... including once a rug which for some reason, me and my mum bought home on the bus...which was an error. Ikea was founded by Ingvar Kamprad by no means a late bloomer at only 17, registering it in 1943 and remaining at the helm into this century. Almhuit has a whole museum on the original store site and today I went to explore it.

The museum was very tranquil with all exhibits In both English and Swedish, I learnt about the founding of the store, the drive for affordability when Sweden was rapidly building a million new homes, an affordability that so angered competitors they refused to supply Ikea or allow them at trade shows. So like any skilled businessman he adapted; heading for Poland for supplies and doing standalone shows. Ingvar was a visionary, he wanted homes you could 'live in', he wanted products for children to enable them to be seen and heard and he wanted prices within reach of the average earner. He opened a furniture showroom in Almhuit in 1958 before Sweden had ever seen a supermarket and people queued round the town to visit. The museum offered interesting displays informed me my much loved IVAR shelves are from the 1970's (not my particular ones but the design)

I learnt about Ikea’s increasing drive for sustainability, built on a foundation of doing more with less. As the founder said "To design a desk which may costs $1,000 is easy for a furniture designer, but to design a functional and good desk which costs $50 can only be done by the very best."

And they had rooms on the ceiling.
So I consider this a day spent in homage to a man I consider something of a hero. A fellow dyslexic, a man who despite his abundant wealth was famously frugal, believing a leader should be an example. He never gave his company up to the stock market, he created an amazing charitable legacy in the IKEA foundation, bought Swedish style to the world and now has a company that is championing the sustainable option as it once championed the liveable home. For those of you thinking didn't this man have links to a pro-Nazi party and have there not been accusations of child labour within the supply chain of IKEA? For the first it has been admitted and apologised for, the second I do believe IKEA is doing its best to have a 'clean' supply chain but the world is a murky place. In reality if you want your heroes flawless, stick to fiction and not even very good fiction as perfect characters have no depth, to me Ingvar Kamprad is a man to be admired. As Ingvar said; "Making mistakes is the privilege of the active. It is always the mediocre people who are negative, who spend their time proving they were not wrong." In summary...Today, I enjoyed a cultural highlight and yes of course I had meatballs in the restaurant and bought something in the shop....that how's trips to IKEA go.
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