You need to locate the national headquarters and buying offices. It was in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania (near Philadelphia) 25 years ago. I think it is still there or in nearby Conshohocken, PA.

My firm pitched a new product design to IKEA in 1991. They were the first company we approached.

IKEA’s American purchasing office was extremely impressed and actually made a tentative offer.

The problem was that their offer included an extremely narrow profit margin and they wanted a lifetime exclusive worldwide distribution agreement.

Another problem was that, even though the American purchasing office liked the design they had to get approval from the International home office.

Months went by without hearing anything and meanwhile we were able to get a much better deal from an alternative furniture manufacturer.

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