Ikea

Oops. Sorry. We goofed. That's the message IKEA customers received this month when the Swedish furniture store reissued 17,000 of the 1 million catalogs mailed to the Philadelphia area last month. The reason? Some of the prices listed in the catalog were just too high. "We found out that an error at the printer and bindery had resulted in a pallet-load of pages with Canadian prices being inserted into the U.S. catalogs," said Ikea spokesperson Fran Novelli. The errors slipped through the store's quality-control department and winged their way into customer's homes.

Philadelphia is making a push to furnish a location for a big Ikea warehouse and distribution facility needed to service the company's growing string of U.S. stores. Ikea, the furniture store chain based in Sweden, is shopping for land in several East Coast metropolitan areas to accommodate the complex. Lee Stull, who directs a Philadelphia economic development group, said Philadelphia appears to have a good shot at landing the project. "I believe we've persuaded them that their first preference should be the greater Philadelphia area," he said.

Two local developers have approached Ikea, the Swedish furniture retailer, with proposals to build the company a custom-designed warehouse and distribution facility in Northeast Philadelphia, according to Phran Novelli, Ikea spokeswoman. Novelli said she could name the prospective developers. Ikea had planned to build its own $21 million warehouse in the city's Byberry East Industrial Park, but in September postponed making a decision on the facility, pending the outcome of a corporate study now under way on suitable warehousing.

The city yesterday finally nailed down a commitment from Ikea to build its East Coast warehouse and distribution center in Philadelphia, a deal that city officials say is a big economic victory for Philadelphia. The deal marks the end to the city's long and at times difficult courtship of Ikea, the Swedish company that claims to be the world's largest furniture retailer. Ikea reached an agreement in principle yesterday with the city to operate a 400,000-square-foot warehouse at the city's Byberry East industrial park in Northeast Philadelphia.

NEW YORK - A labor union looking to organize Ikea's first American factory is asking the federal government to allow workers to vote on whether they want representation. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers filed a request with the National Labor Relations Board this week along with signature cards from what it believes is a majority of the eligible employees at Ikea's factory in Danville, Va. The plant, which produces bookcases and coffee tables, is run by Ikea's manufacturing subsidiary, Swedwood.

THE Daily News misunderstands the role of the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority in the city and region's economic life (editorial, "IKEA on the Waterfront: Assembly Required," Nov. 11). We are not opposed to IKEA establishing a retail presence in Philadelphia. We simply question why it must be located in the very heart of the Port Industrial District. The site at Snyder Avenue and Christopher Columbus Boulevard is directly across the street from the port's Forest Products Distribution Center, a major banana import facility and one of the largest cocoa-bean facilities in the United States.

BERLIN - Swedish furniture giant Ikea, whose U.S. headquarters is in Conshohocken, expressed regret Friday that it benefited from the use of forced prison labor by some of its suppliers in communist East Germany more than two decades ago. The company released an independent report showing that East German prisoners, among them many political dissidents, were involved in the manufacture of goods supplied to Ikea 25 to 30 years ago. The report concluded...

Ikea, the Swedish home-furnishings giant, will lease a national warehouse and distribution complex to be built in Northeast Philadelphia, city development officials said last night. The $13.1 million deal, which they called a "coup" for Philadelphia, will produce 150 construction jobs and 75 permanent jobs. It also could give a strong boost to Philadelphia's sagging port traffic. "The tide has changed," City Commerce Director Charles Pizzi said last night. "We can now attract new business into the city.

City officials said they'll continue to work closely with IKEA, even though the Swedish furniture store chain has postponed its decision on whether to build a large distribution facility in Philadelphia. The city had offered IKEA a site on a city-owned industrial park in the Northeast and arranged low-interest construction financing. It also applied for a federal grant on IKEA's behalf. IKEA never committed to building a facility in Philadelphia, but city officials confessed they believed a deal was imminent.

On Tuesday, IKEA officially plugged in rooftop solar arrays at three regional facilities – stores in Conshohocken and South Philadelphia, plus its U.S. service center in Conshohocken. The arrays have a total of 9,198 panels and are expected to generate 2,654,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year, the equivalent of powering 228 homes. The savings in carbon dioxide emissions is expected to be the equivalent of removing 359 cars from the road. IKEA has now installed solar at 29 of its U.S. facilities, with installations under way at 10 more, according to the company.

STOCKHOLM - Swedish furniture giant Ikea became entangled in Europe's widening meat scandal Monday, forced to withdraw meatballs from stores across Europe amid suspicions that they contained horse meat. Stores in the United States and Canada were not affected, Ikea said. The company reacted after authorities in the Czech Republic said they had detected horse DNA in tests of 1-kilogram (2.2-pound) packs of frozen meatballs that were labeled as beef and pork. The Czech State Veterinary Administration said that it tested two batches of Ikea meatballs and that only one of them contained horse meat.

BERLIN - Swedish furniture giant Ikea, whose U.S. headquarters is in Conshohocken, expressed regret Friday that it benefited from the use of forced prison labor by some of its suppliers in communist East Germany more than two decades ago. The company released an independent report showing that East German prisoners, among them many political dissidents, were involved in the manufacture of goods supplied to Ikea 25 to 30 years ago. The report concluded...

BERLIN - Ikea will release a report this week addressing claims that it benefited from forced labor in the former communist East Germany, the company and victims groups said Monday. The report by independent auditors Ernst & Young looks into allegations that Ikea, whose U.S. headquarters is in Conshohocken, used East German suppliers who employed prisoners - some of them political dissidents - to manufacture goods for its stores from the 1960s to 1980s. "We hope this will be a first step toward a broader investigation into the use of forced labor in East Germany," Rainer Wagner, chairman of the victims' group UOKG, told the Associated Press.

Ikea, the world's largest home retailer, is putting the kibosh on compact fluorescent light bulbs. The Swedish company announced Monday it going all LED by 2016. LED bulbs - that stands for light-emitting diodes - are more expensive, but they consume 85 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs and can last up to 20 times longer, Ikea said. Ikea, whose U.S. headquarters are in Conshohocken, called its ban on the spiral fluorescents "another bold move" by a company that first banned incandescents in 2010.

On Tuesday, IKEA officially plugged in rooftop solar arrays at three regional facilities – stores in Conshohocken and South Philadelphia, plus its U.S. service center in Conshohocken. The arrays have a total of 9,198 panels and are expected to generate 2,654,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year, the equivalent of powering 228 homes. The savings in carbon dioxide emissions is expected to be the equivalent of removing 359 cars from the road. IKEA has now installed solar at 29 of its U.S. facilities, with installations under way at 10 more, according to the company.

When Naomi Stein, a Bala Cynwyd interior designer, was searching for a set of nightstands for her bedroom, she ran into a dilemma: She had a limited budget and rather expensive taste. Then she came across a blog post featuring an Ikea Rast dresser, a plain three-drawer box in unfinished pine, that had been painted, stained, and blinged out with hardware. She decided to follow the blogger's lead, creating her own elegant accent pieces from the same unassuming Ikea structure. "I figured, I can try it," Stein said.

In the Region Ikea assembles 45,360 solar panels Ikea , the Swedish home-furnishings retailer with U.S. headquarters in Conshohocken, announced plans to install 45,360 solar panels on 10 locations in the southern United States. The panels will have a generating capacity of 10.7 megawatts. The retailer already has 23 solar systems installed or under way. The 10 new locations will increase the company's solar presence to 75 percent of its U.S. locations. - Andrew Maykuth     N.J. fugitive is arrested in Fla. Federal law enforcement officials apprehended a former Voorhees resident, who allegedly sold bogus insurance policies and had been a fugitive for three years, in Port Charlotte, Fla., the U.S. Attorney's Office for New Jersey said.

Ikea, the Swedish home furnishings retailer with U.S. headquarters in Conshohocken, on Tuesday announced plans to install 45,360 solar panels on ten locations in the southern United States. The panels will have a generating capacity of 10.7 megawatts. The retailer already has 23 solar systems installed or under way. The ten new locations will increase the company's solar presence to 75 percent of its U.S. locations.    - Andrew Maykuth

DesignPhiladelphia is an 11-day celebration of creativity in the city. Information on the festival is at www.designphiladelphia.org . Here are previews of four events. Artists, Luddites, and administrative personnel can exact vengeance on technology Saturday at the Printer Smash, back this year by popular demand as part of DesignPhiladelphia. In a space the size of a boxing ring, visitors to Printer Smash will be provided an instrument of destruction, safety goggles, and an inkless technological nemesis.

NEW YORK - A labor union looking to organize Ikea's first American factory is asking the federal government to allow workers to vote on whether they want representation. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers filed a request with the National Labor Relations Board this week along with signature cards from what it believes is a majority of the eligible employees at Ikea's factory in Danville, Va. The plant, which produces bookcases and coffee tables, is run by Ikea's manufacturing subsidiary, Swedwood.