Ikea to stop printing catalogue after 'successful career' that spanned 70 years
Next year will be the last for publication that challenged the Bible for No. 1 circulation spot.
At its peak, the Ikea catalogue was said to have a greater circulation than that of the Bible. But while around 40m copies of the Bible are expected to be distributed around the world next year, the catalogue of the Swedish furniture giant will, after seven decades, no longer be published because demand has fallen.
“It has been one of our best-known and best-loved products for 70 years, inspiring billions of people around the world,” an Ikea manager, Konrad Grüss, said in a statement. As ever fewer people were reading it, leading to the decision to “respectfully end the successful career of the Ikea catalogue”.
The first catalogue appeared in 1950 in Swedish only. It was 16 pages long and listed all the company’s products, accompanied by simple black and white drawings.
A year later, it had expanded to 68 pages, put together by Ikea’s founder, Ingvar Kamprad, featuring a brown upholstered rocking chair on its front cover. About 285,000 copies were distributed, but only in southern Sweden. It quickly became an annual insight into contemporary modern living and a bible in its own right for lovers of flat-pack furniture. Some libraries even carry back-copies of the catalogue, which has become a collector’s item.
The magazine has been available online since 1998, but while the online version has gradually made the paper one obsolete, it too will be discontinued, Grüss said.
The decision is part of a long-term company overhaul as it attempts to tackle the increasing competition it faces from a growing number of furniture startups that are biting at its heels.
Its own online trade rose by 45% last year, thanks in large part to its offering to customers of ever more options to create their home spaces digitally, especially using augmented reality to project images of furniture on to the walls of their homes.
In autumn 2021, Ikea plans a homage to its catalogue in the form of a book with tips and inspirational ideas for DIY interior design.
While talks about the future of the catalogue had been ongoing for four years, Grüss said the final decision was taken in the past few months as discussions on a 2022 edition were under way.
Circulation reached a peak in 2016, when 200m copies in 32 different languages were distributed worldwide.
The catalogue is often cited alongside the Bible, the Qur’an and Harry Potter books in terms of total number of copies printed, but Grüss said he was unsure whether it had ever claimed the top spot.
Comments
Post a Comment