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The last blog post was about Terence Conran's offerings in well priced design. In the same period at the other end of the North Sea the Swedish founder of Ikea, Ingvar Kamprad, published his first catalogue.  As a door to door sales man of pens, stockings and other stuff, he developed himself as a salesman in furniture that was made by local manufacturers. Through his competitors he was forced to lower his prices. As a response to that he opened a showroom in 1953 where his customers could experience the good quality of his comparatively low priced furniture. This showroom concept was a hit, but the competition continued. The supplier boycott  made him design his own furniture, that   resulted in Ikea's current and successful business model.  From then on Ikea's designed furniture in flat packaging that was easy to transport and assemble by the customers. People loved it and Kamprad could open his first store in 1958. Fifty years later Ikea is the owner of 253 stores in 24 countries. 

Ikea's development has similarities with that of Terence Conran. Conran did offer reasonably priced design like Ikea and he developed a productline for self- assembly and transport.  Conran sold his product line in his own stores, called Habitat stores , that he sold later , together with some other acquired stores, to Ikea's holding.