The furniture giant Ikea is known for furniture that is put together with allen’s wrenches, giant storefronts, and its iconic Swedish meatballs.
But did you know meatballs weren’t always on the menu?
The retail giant sells over one billion of its trademark Swedish meatballs in cafeterias every year.
The meatballs are key to Ikea’s strategy of keeping customers in stores for hours while they check out new furniture, and take home a new bed or dresser after lunch.
In 2017, Gerd Diewald, head of Ikea’s food operations in the US, credited the meatballs as a driver of sales of Ikea sofas.
But when Ikea opened its first cafe in lmhult, Sweden, in 1953, there were no meatballs on the menu.
There was nothing more than coffee and cake.
As the company grew, its restaurant food offerings expanded to traditional fare typical to the Swedish palate: Sausages, or Potato Mash.
In 1985, after a reorganization of the menu and restaurant operations, the now iconic meatballs were added to the menu.
But no one at Ikea would have predicted what a hit they would become!
“I would never have imagined 40 years later people would be calling me about it,” said Sören Hullberg, who led Ikea’s food revamp at the time.
Sören Hullberg, who headed up the reorganization of the food menus, still receives calls about them 40 years later.
When Ikea first approached meat companies to supply meatballs for their restaurants, they were skeptical. Who would buy meatballs from a furniture store?
Why Restaurants?
Ikea was originally started as a mail-order furniture company. Named after the initials of the founder, Ingvar Kamprad, as well as the farm/village he was farm, he sought to solve a customer retention problems. Customers would get hungry while wandering the huge box store, and leave to find lunch.
Kamprad envisioned a restaurant inside the store such that, when customers grew hungry while shopping, could sit down, have a meal, and continue planning their home decoration and purposes without needing to leave the premises.
He tasked Hullberg, then a store manager, with designing the restaurant concept for the entire chain. This was comprehensive from menu items, to designing the kitchen line, to training the kitchen and serving staff.
After recruiting a chef from a world-class restaurant in Stockholm, Hullberg and his team set out to create a restaurant concept that would mirror the culture, thriftiness and value of the Ikea store.
Their mission? To make sure no person leaves Ikea because they are hungry or thirsty.
When Hullberg set out starting the restaurant, Ikea stores were serving up to 5,000 customers a day.
To meet low cost targets of labor and supplies, Hullberg created a limited menu that had worldwide appeal, choosing dishes that would have appeal to many different palates.
The traditional meal of Swedish Meatballs fit this perfectly, as meatballs are present in almost every culture’s diet.
Another plus was that meatballs were easy to freeze and transport to the many stores worldwide, and quick to prepare for customers.
However, “Swedish Meatballs” doesn’t have a single recipe – there are dozens of recipes for meat content, ingredients and preparation. So Ikea needed to choose one single recipe to be the “signature” for their restaurant, that was simple to outsource. In the end, the team settled on a recipe that contained 1/3 pork and 2/3 beef.
In addition to meatballs, the new menu also featured Swedish staples such as salmon and roast beef, and smaller plates like salads and sandwiches.
The new restaurant would also serve other Swedish dishes including Roast Beef, Salmon, salads and sandwiches. Of course they continued to serve the coffee and cakes as they had in the past.
Today, the restaurant is a key fixture in all stores. Being located in the middle of the store is a strategic placement.
For example, the restaurant isn’t located at the front of the store as Ikea wants customers to shop first, then work up an appetite while deciding on purchases. According to research conduced by Alison Jing Xu, Professor of Marketing at the University of Minnesota, hungry shoppers spend on average 64% more than shoppers who are full.
Ikea – Synonymous with Meatballs
Almost 40 years later, Ikea sells over 1 billion meatballs each year. The original meatball recipe has expanded to five varieties: the original beef/pork, as well as chicken-based, salmon balls, vegetarian, as well as a “plant ball” introduced in 2020. Serving options include with cream sauce, lingonberry jam, sautéed vegetables, and with potatoes. Customers can also purchase the meatballs for home cooking.
During the COVID-19 Pandemic, when stores were closed, Ikea released the recipe for its meatballs to enjoy at home.
Just as adding the restaurant was an innovation in 1985, the company continues to improve with changing times. Ever-dedicated to environmental sustainability, Ikea introduced the “Plant Ball” to address concerns with carbon emissions associated with meat production.
The new “Plant Ball” was introduced to mimic the taste and texture of the original meatball, with only 4% of the carbon impact. The ingredients include potatoes, onion, yellow pea protein, oats and apple.
The Ikea restaurant has clearly been a hit, with up to 30% of restaurant visitors coming solely for the food – not to buy furniture. New “pop-up” restaurants are being tested in London, Oslo and Paris that bring the tastes of Ikea without sofas or dressers.
