Published: 9 Aug 12 12:11 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/42514/20120809/
The Ikea brand has been sold for 75 billion kronor ($11.2 billion) to one of the Swedish furniture giant’s daughter companies, with experts saying that the price tag is "reasonable".
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
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I don't!!!
fact back home nobody even knows what Ikea is, that is nice!!!
Ideally, each product should have a small video of its life cycle from begging to end with who made it and how much they earned, how many hours they work a week, etc. My fear is people would see deplorable working conditions and still buy the products anyway as society seems quite apathetic as of late.
The town only exists because of Ikea so Ingmar has not totally abandoned Sweden
Also IKEA's suppliers must adhere to iworking which protects the worker's rights.
IKEA profiles itself as a swedish company and despite the legal bases of the group's subsidiaries and affiliated companies, it has an extraordinarily swedish corporate culture. all design and marketing is thoroughly dominated by swedes and swedish cultural values. and even if based in the netherlands, inter-IKEA, the owner of the franchise (and new owner of the brand) has swedish echoing throughout its corridors. englishmen, germans, dutch, etc employees often speak swedish too even if they're in delft.
and to be ranked 89th globally...with about 350 stores TOTAL...is damn impressive.
"Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations."
― George Orwell
Relying on the source of information to be the same that also has a subjective interest is bad journalism and lacks critical thinking. IKEA as any other company will use PR to cover up as much truth as possible that would negatively impact them.
It is well known Kamprad was a Nazi and if the historical labor relations with suppliers are looked at the idea of placing the "Untermensch" in the eqv. of concentration camps to benefit the consumers of IKEA and the owners of IKEA then those Nazi ideals still hold true.
Regarding certification. Many factories are certified, often certification is a rubber stamp, a PR gimmick. If IKEA has nothing to hide then let all the employees of all the suppliers place cameras in their working environments and allow potential customers to ask those workers questions.
Try the documentaries Santa's Workshop and No Logo as primers to understand how such companies as Wal Mart, Ikea, and Tesco use the eqv. of Slave labor and how these companies are destroying the public space in the countries they sell in.
also, regarding your warnings of ikea factories functioning on par as "slave labor", could you refer to specific accusations? in which countries? how does IKEA "destroy public space" in the countries they sell in anyhow?
Ikea is a case in PR failure regarding their handling of complaints of human rights and they were dragged kicking and screaming to join RUGMARK. In fact, its a business case often studied.
Today, we see their efforts at union busting via Swedwood in the Danville, Va. USA.
On the other hand, IKEA spends a great deal of money promoting their version of the truth of their child labor and human rights record. IKEA as most multi's do not changed until they are forced, as is the case in India, any "goodwill" IKEA is trying to present is whitewash...Today, IKEA steals employ files in France...
Kamprad says being a Nazi was "his life's biggest mistake". And yet he keeps repeating the same mistake and only corrects his companies behavior when he gets caught.