<P> Most of Ikea's stores and factories are owned by INGKA, a holding company that in turn is controlled by the Stichting INGKA Foundation, one of the 40 wealthiest foundations in the world . </P> <P> Ingvar Kamprad founded IKEA in 1943 as a mostly mail - order sales business . It began to sell furniture five years later . The first Möbel - IKÉA store was opened in Älmhult, Småland, in 1958 (Möbel means "furniture" in Swedish). The first stores outside Sweden were opened in Norway (1963) and Denmark (1969). The stores spread to other parts of Europe in the 1970s, with the first store outside Scandinavia opening in Switzerland (1973), followed by West Germany (1974). </P> <P> Amid a high level of success, the company's West German executives accidentally opened a store in Konstanz in 1973 instead of Koblenz . Later that decade, stores opened in other parts of the world, such as Japan (1974), Australia, Canada, Hong Kong (1975), and Singapore (1978). IKEA further expanded in the 1980s, opening stores in countries such as France and Spain (1981), Belgium (1984), the United States (1985), the United Kingdom (1987), and Italy (1989). The company later expanded into more countries in the 1990s and 2000s . Germany, with 50 stores, is IKEA's biggest market, followed by the United States, with 48 stores . At the end of the 2009 financial year, the IKEA group operated 267 stores in 25 countries . The first IKEA store in Latin America opened on 17 February 2010 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic . As of July 2013, the company's presence in developing countries remains minimal . </P> <P> The world's five largest IKEA stores are: </P>

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