Explore The Story of IKEA

The great expansion

On the market.

These days, that big blue box is a familiar sight around the world, but it didn’t happen suddenly. In the 1960s, IKEA started to expand into the wider Scandinavian market. However, it was not until the 1970s that what’s known within IKEA as “The Great Expansion” hit the ground running.

During that decade, IKEA established itself not only in Europe but also in Asia, Australia and North America. The development and implementation of the IKEA franchising system in the 1980s further accelerated expansion.

Browse our interactive map to follow IKEA on its journey to meet even more of the many people.

IKEA expansion over the decades