IKEA puts boot onto Denmark

Regular visitors to IKEA stores will know that it uses Scandinavian names for all its products even though shoppers outside the region have no idea what they mean, and in some cases cannot even pronounce them, but for consumers in Denmark it is a different story.

And some of them don't seem to like the fact the retailer continues to name its floor products - including doormats and rugs - after Danish towns and regions, which to some people is being seen as IKEA symbolically portraying Denmark as the doormat of Sweden. Other people have never come across this issue, including strangely a couple of Danish furniture retailers, who I bumped into at the World Retail Congress last week.

Whether this naming policy is nothing more than co-incidence, as suggested by IKEA, is questionable because this would be a great example of the Swedish retailer's impish sense of humour. Since this goes down rather well in the UK could IKEA make an exception and start naming some of its products after British towns...I for one am not going there so don't expect any possible examples in this column.