‘I think Ikea here is everybody’s Ikea. Everybody has their story, I think that’s something we get right in this market’

Chief executive Jesper Brodin talks about the remarkable strength of the Swedish giant’s performance since coming to Ireland

Ingka Group CEO Jesper Brodin has holidayed in Ireland a couple of times – including playing golf with his parents in Co Kerry. ‘They are terrible golfers,’ he joked, and apologised for chunks taken out of the golf course. Photo: Getty

John Mulligan

Jesper Brodin breezes past the discrete Ikea plan and order outlet in Dublin’s St Stephen’s Green shopping centre and circles around before clapping eyes on it. It’s hard to blame him.

Even though it’s smack bang in the middle of the ground floor, the store still has a tucked-away feel to it. Inside, it’s no bigger than the kind of studio apartment that many twenty-somethings in the capital would these days unfortunately count themselves lucky to call home.