Stockholm - Swedish furniture retail giant Ikea Friday named Mikael Ohlsson as its new chief executive officer.

Ohlsson, who began as a carpet seller at Ikea's store in the central city of Linkping some 30 years ago, was to replace Anders Dahlvig as of September 1.

Dahlvig has been head of the furniture giant that employs some 127,000 people for 10 years.

Ikea was founded by Ingvar Kamprad in 1943. It is not a listed company and does not disclose its profitability.

Ikea posted global sales of some 21 billion euros (27 billion dollars) for the financial year that ended August 31.

The group had over 250 stores in two dozen countries at the end of the financial year. (dpa)