 Down in the concrete sprawl of Essex's Lakeside shopping centre, something stirs. Mikael Ohlsson, global boss of Ikea, is refusing to have his picture taken. "I don't like that idea," he says in his singsong Swedish accent, when the photographer suggests the carpet department.  "Maybe there is something better here," he adds, gesturing around.  Ohlsson, 53, blond and rosy-cheeked, has already insisted I interview him in a busy shopfloor kitchen, with customers pressing behind him to fiddle with the hotplates.  Our photographer is exasperated, but the Ikea boss is obdurate.  I know what he is up to. Earlier he had told me that Ikea was running away with the kitchen market elsewhere in Europe but failing to impress in Britain.  "We have a big focus on kitchens now. We have developed that over the past decade. Every second kitchen purchased in Norway is Ikea, every third in Sweden, every third in France, but here the customer hasn't really discovered Ikea kitchens ..." So crafty Ohlsson is hijacking our photo shoot to plug them, saving himself the cost of an ad. That's very Ikea, always looking to cut someone out of the supply chain. It's how it keeps its prices down - just ask the customers requested to collect, unpack and assemble their own purchases.  and in a recession that works. Ikea, the world's No 1 furniture retailer, has just posted record profits, up 6% to ?2.7 billion (?2.3 billion) on revenues up 7.7% to ?23.1 billion. The privately held group now has 280 warehouse stores across Europe, north america and asia, and aims to open up to 15 new outlets a year.  "Because when the economy is tough, the need for a beautiful home remains, and value consciousness goes up," beams Ohlsson. "and that's our strength."  Casually dressed in chinos and jumper, the Ikea boss is a surprise. affable, bright and deceptively tough, he says his greatest pleasure is playing guitar with his amateur rock band. Yet he looks like a seriously determined schoolboy.  The very fact he has asked me here is remarkable enough. Ohlsson took the top slot at the group two years ago, and promised a new approach: more openness about its business and its numbers.  In the past, Ikea didn't do that. Founded by the veteran entrepreneur Ingvar Kamprad, now owned by a charitable foundation based in the Netherlands, it has expanded globally with minimal transparency or discussion.  Consequently a good deal of rumour swirls round. Kamprad, 84, heads the foundation that owns Ikea and, according to some, still pulls the strings. He has led a chequered life, admitting to alcoholism and an early flirtation with the Swedish Nazi party. His three sons are also heavily involved in the web of firms round Ikea. So what does that make the group chief executive - a puppet? Ohlsson blinks earnestly behind his spectacles. "I get asked this quite often but Kamprad is 84. I see him maybe five times a year, his sons maybe two times. If we couldn't run the company along the lines we on the board wanted, why would I have taken this assignment?" For the money? He sighs. The truth is more mundane. The way ownership is structured allows Ikea to reinvest profits and focus on long-term growth, so there is no obsession with short-term results, and no threat of takeover.  "The whole goal is that Ikea should stand free from banks and investors, and be really long term. That's one of the reasons I like it - the aim is to satisfy customers, not stock markets. and we haven't paid a dividend for five years."  It is certainly tax-efficient. Ikea wraps itself in Sweden's blue and yellow yet now keeps its head office in the Netherlands. and a recent book by a former executive - The Truth about Ikea, by Johan Stenebo - accuses it of regularly putting profit before ethics and showing little diversity in its male, Swedish top team.  Not true, says Ohlsson, 40% of his top 200 managers are women. "and I find the criticism rather odd. The only areas where we were not so open were structure and financials. Therefore, we decided we would make yearly summaries for co-workers."  So would he have taken the top job if they hadn't? "I was one who always wanted it. But I had taken the job before the decision was made."  With 31 years at the company, working through store management and heading design and production, he is not short of experience. Born in Helsingborg, the coastal city that is closest to Denmark, to teacher parents, Ohlsson has a reputation as both a strategist and a communicator.  Former colleagues say he should have had the top slot before anders Dahlvig, his predecessor, but was passed over because he questioned Kamprad diktats too often. That makes his arrival at the top piquant.  His current managers say he has shifted the emphasis at Ikea. "It's about understanding the space people live in, where size and affordability are key," says Martin Hansson, Ikea's UK boss. "and Mikael is a good ambassador for Ikea values - down to earth, non-hierarchical, humble."  In Britain, Ikea's fourth-biggest market, humility is not the issue. Ikea's 18 stores here have been too successful for their own good. Often crowded and difficult to negotiate, they repel as many as they attract. The problem is planning, says Ohlsson. "We would like to have 10 more stores in Britain, but we have not been able to with existing planning policies as they are."  Yet he promises that Ikea will prevail. a new planning application for a 36,000 square metre store outside Reading will be filed next month, he says, the result of a new approach addressing local concerns.  Ohlsson also promises investment in photovoltaic systems to power stores, and in wind farms across Europe so that Ikea becomes "100% renewable" in energy. Sustainability is now a priority. Wouldn't it be much easier to expand outside Britain? "No, I would rather open another 10 stores here than open on a new continent. We have customer trust here. We are doing so much now to hook up with environmental, traffic and planning solutions ..." He uses that to start a long speech about the retailer's aims and the hopes of his 130,000 employees, citing the charitable work Ikea does in India, centred on mothers and children, as evidence of its determination to "do good".  India, of course, is another focus for expansion. But the company won't open a store there until politicians change the law that forces foreign retailers to take a local partner. Too costly, says Ohlsson, claiming that this law will change soon.  The group is already in China. It has also been mired in a bribery scandal in Russia. Rumour is never far behind. Some believe Ikea's drive for more stores, rather than selling on the internet, is simply because Ingvar Kamprad doesn't use computers.  No, says Ohlsson. Slow and careful is just the Ikea way. "We believe people want to feel and touch our products, but we also know time is restricted and some people live too far away from a store, so we have started online services in 10 countries." These services offer a fraction of the range. Further tests are being run in Britain, america and Germany. a full service will be tested in one country - possibly here.  Why so long? "Because first we want to have a fully functioning distribution set-up that is not so costly, and we don't want store customers to subsidise it. It will be ready soon."  and will he last the course? Stenebo, in his book about Ikea, praises Ohlsson as the best Swedish retailer of his generation, but now he wonders if the Ikea boss will eventually fall foul of the Kamprad family. "When the sons finally take over from Ingvar, the whole ownership structure will become very volatile," predicts Stenebo. "That's what will worry Mikael most."  Ohlsson won't discuss it. The point is the products, he says, and Ikea's desire to fur 