Ikea and Georgia

Business Daily talks to Ikea's boss - about the downturn and how long it will last, and looks at the economic woes of Georgia, still suffering the after-effects of the war with Russia.

Across the world, couples and families queue up to get inside, queue up to buy cheap flat-pack furniture and then queue up to eat Swedish meatballs in the cafe. Yes it's IKEA, and in a moment we'll be hearing from its boss. IKEA is a Scandinavian icon, but it's also the butt of endless jokes about queuing, and finding that your one vital prospective purchase is...out of stock.

t is the world's biggest furniture retailer -and despite the downturn, its sales in 2008 amounted to 30 billion dollars and that was up 7 per cent. We don't know how big its PROFITS were because it is a private company; in fact there's been criticism of its ownership structure, based in the Netherlands- some argue it's opaque and secretive. IKEA was founded in the 1940s by Swedish entrepreneur Ingvar Kamprad. And the founder is very influential, according to Robert Gelmanovski from the Nordic Brand Academy.

Ikea's not immune to the economic malaise. The number of store openings has been slowing down, and there've been some reductions in the workforce.

The chief executive is Anders Dahlvig, who has been in the job for ten years - he steps down this September.

In that last decade, the company's grown fast and committed itself to various environmental targets. First, does he see a trade-off between profits and sustainability?

If you've been following events in Georgia you'll probably know its relationship with its former ally Russia is nowadays, dysfunctional, to say the least. However the two countries used to have a vital economic relationship. Georgia - a land rich in vineyards and farms, used to export many of its goods to Russia, which in return provided it with energy. All that changed sometime before the two countries went to war - and now Georgia looks to the west for investment and trade relations.

But Georgia is struggling on many fronts. As if the global economic crisis weren't enough, it is recovering from last summer's conflict and now opposition protestors have blockaded some streets of the capital Tbilisi for more than eight weeks - and that too seems to be deterring investment. The BBC's Tom Esslemont reports from Tbilisi.