Research Paper on:
IKEA in the UK

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
and external conditions. Two useful tools are the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses , opportunities and threats), and PEST (political, economic, social and technological) analysis. We will use these to look at  Ikea in the UK. Strengths for Ikea in the UK include a string brand name that has a high level of recognition. Ikea  is the third largest company for household furniture in the UK with only MFI and DFS ahead of this company (Euromonitor, 2003). However, this is in a very fragmented market  where the leader; MFI, has only a 12% market share (Euromonitor, 2003). The company also has the resources to continue the current expansion  and is making good progress, for example, the company has just gained planning permission 28,000 square meter store in north London (Planning (UK), 2004). This will also increase quality within  the company and help reduce the overcrowding that is taking place in the nearby Brent Cross store (Planning (UK), 2004). There are also advantages in the business model where there  are large stores and stock available form in store without a delay of several days or weeks. However there is also a competitive advantage in the way a roof rack  can be bought to transport goods home, and then when returned a full refund given (Ikea, 2004). Weaknesses may be seen in the  current business model. The model is one that has advantages, but the way the stock is collected following a purchase leads a wait that can be in excess of twenty  minutes after the purchase is finalised and may be more. This is acknowledged and a trial using self scanning devices was tested in the Bristol store, but this failed and