Inter IKEA Systems B.V., trading as IKEA, is a Swedish multinational conglomerate that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture, kitchen appliances, decoration, home accessories, and various other goods and home services. Started in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad and currently legally headquartered in the Netherlands, IKEA has been the world's largest furniture retailer since 2008. The brand used by the group is derived from an acronym that consists of the founder's initials, and those of Elmtaryd, the family farm where he was born, and the nearby village Agunnaryd.
WH Smith PLC, trading as WHSmith, is a British retailer, with headquarters in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, entertainment products and confectionery.
FAO Schwarz is an American toy brand and retail chain. The company is known for its high-end toys, life-sized stuffed animals, interactive experiences, brand integrations, and games.
Aldi is the common company brand name of two German multinational family-owned discount supermarket chains operating over 12,000 stores in 18 countries. The chain was founded by brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht in 1946, when they took over their mother's store in Essen. The business was split into two separate groups in 1960, that later became Aldi Nord, headquartered in Essen, and Aldi Süd, headquartered in Mülheim.
Toys "R" Us is an American toy, clothing, and baby product retailer owned by Tru Kids and various others. The company was founded in 1948; its first store was built in April 1948, with its headquarters located in Parsippany-Troy Hills, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area.
Hamleys of London Limited, trading as Hamleys, is a British multinational toy retailer, owned by Reliance Retail. Listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's oldest toy store, it was founded by William Hamley as "Noah's Ark" in High Holborn, London, in 1760. It moved to its current site on Regent Street in London's West End in 1881. This flagship store is set over seven floors, with more than 50,000 lines of toys on sale. It receives around five million visitors each year.
SPAR, originally DESPAR, styled as DE SPAR, is a Dutch multinational franchise that provides branding, supplies and support services for independently owned and operated food retail stores. It was founded in the Netherlands in 1932, by Adriaan van Well, and as of 2021 consists of 13,623 stores in 48 countries.
Primark Stores Limited is an Irish multinational fast fashion retailer with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, with outlets across Europe and in the United States. The original Penneys brand is not used outside of Ireland because it is owned elsewhere by American retailer J. C. Penney.
The LEGO Group is a Danish construction toy production company based in Billund, Denmark. It manufactures Lego-branded toys, consisting mostly of interlocking plastic bricks. The LEGO Group has also built several amusement parks around the world, each known as Legoland, and operates numerous retail stores.
Warner Bros. DiscoveryEurope, Middle East&Africa(EMEA) is a division of Warner Bros. Discovery. The division is responsible for managing the collection of their cable and satellite networks around the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions.
Decathlon is a French sporting goods retailer. With over 2,080 stores in 56 countries and regions (2023), it is the largest sporting goods retailer in the world.
New Look is a British global fashion retailer with a chain of high street shops. It was founded in 1969. The chain sells womenswear, menswear, and clothing for teens. New Look was owned by private equity groups Apax Partners and Permira, and founder Tom Singh, until May 2015 when it was acquired by Brait SE (SA) for £780 million.
Jysk A/S is a Danish retail chain, selling household goods such as mattresses, furniture, and interior décor. Jysk is the largest Danish retailer operating internationally with over 3,100 stores in 51 countries. Jysk was founded by Lars Larsen, who opened the first store on Silkeborgvej in the Danish city of Aarhus in April 1979. It is owned by the founder Lars Larsen's family through the holding company Lars Larsen Group which also owns wholly or partly the furniture chains ILVA, IDÉmøbler, IDdesign, Bolia.com, and Sengespecialisten. The logo displays a goose, which has a historical thread to the brand. Due to the Scandinavian design for its products, it is also called the Danish IKEA in a small format.
Screwfix Direct Limited, trading as Screwfix, is a retailer of trade tools, accessories and hardware products based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1979 as the Woodscrew Supply Company, the company was acquired in July 1999 by Kingfisher plc, which also owns B&Q, and is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Valora is a Swiss retail and food service holding company. The company was acquired on 7 October 2022 by FEMSA.
Lidl is a German international discount retailer chain that operates over 12,000 stores, present in every member state of the European Union, Serbia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. Headquartered in Neckarsulm, Baden-Württemberg, the company belongs to the Schwarz Group, which also includes hypermarket chain Kaufland.
Eason Retail PLC, known as Easons or Eason, is an Irish retail company best known for selling books, stationery, cards, gifts, newspapers and magazines. Headquartered in Swords, County Dublin, it is the largest supplier of books, magazines, and newspapers in Ireland.
Flying Tiger Copenhagen is a Danish variety store chain. Its first shop opened in Copenhagen in 1995 and the chain now has nearly 1000 shops. Its largest markets are Denmark, the UK, Italy, and Spain. Before June 2016, it operated as Tiger in most markets, as T·G·R in Sweden and Norway, and as Flying Tiger in Ireland, Japan, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The chain sells a variety of items, mostly accessories and toys. According to the company's founder, the company had about 39 million customers in 2014. Tiger takes its name from how the Danish pronunciation of the animal name tiger sounds roughly the same as the Danish word tier, used to denote a 10 kroner coin; in the first stores in Denmark, all items cost 10 kroner.
Maisons du Monde is a French furniture and home decor company founded in Brest in 1996 by Xavier Marie. At the end of 2015 it had nearly 250 stores across France, Italy, Spain, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany and in Switzerland, of which more than 180 are in France. In 2010, it generated nearly €323 million in sales. In 2015 it employed over 5,500 people.
Intertoys is a Dutch chain of stores founded in 1976 that specialises in toys, multimedia and electronics. It is headquartered in Amsterdam.
