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Finance

What Percent of IKEA's Revenue Comes from Food Sales?

Sweden-based retailer IKEA, founded in 1943, specializes in ready-to-assemble furniture; however, approximately 5% of IKEA’s revenue actually comes from food sales. The company reported earnings of $26.5 billion US Dollars (USD) in 2012, with $1.3 billion USD being attributed to food sales. The furniture retailer sells prepared Swedish-inspired dishes as well as local specialties varying by specific locations at the cafeterias and bistros located within the stores. Its most popular item tends to be a Swedish meatball platter with traditional Swedish accompaniments of ligonberry sauce, cream sauce, and mashed potatoes. The company is estimated to sell over 150 million of the Swedish meatball platters each year.

More about IKEA:

  • The name IKEA is made up of the initials of the company’s founder, Ingvar Kamprad, along with the southern Swedish farm, Elmtaryd, and village Agunnaryd, where he lived as a child.
  • Europe has the highest number of IKEA employees in the world, at around 99,000, followed by North America with approximately 18,000, according to 2012 company statistics.
  • The IKEA catalog is one of the most printed and distributed items in the world. In 2012, over 198 million were printed in 27 languages.

Discussion Comments

By bear78 — On Oct 08, 2013
@alisha-- I think that number includes all food items, so yes, items in the specialty shop like chocolates should be included. As far as I know, IKEA has a restaurant, a cafe and then the specialty shop that offers things like cookies and chocolates. The common theme is that they're all Swedish foods.

I think that IKEA's food sales are going to go down in the next few years though. Did you guys hear about the meatball and chocolate cake scandal? I think it was fairly recently that they found traces of horse meat in the meatballs. The chocolate cake was also contaminated with bacteria. IKEA had to pull these items from dozens of stores.

With this kind of bad reputation, I don't expect IKEA's food sales to rise. Maybe IKEA should just sell furniture. Or maybe they should make a deal with a chain restaurant to avoid these problems.

By discographer — On Oct 08, 2013

Does this 5% include things like chocolates and cookies that they sell around the cashiers? Or is it just the food court sales?

I don't usually eat at IKEA, but I love their chocolates. I buy those all the time.

By serenesurface — On Oct 08, 2013

I'm not surprised. The IKEA I visited was a huge store. I was so tired just walking around and got super hungry. It's not feasible to go out, eat and come back. So everyone goes to the cafeteria area to eat. I've even seen people who barely bought anything and just enjoyed lunch there with their families.

The food is great for children too, they have things that kids like to eat.

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