Flatpack antiques? What a novel Ikea

BORN in Pjatteryd, Smaland, in 1926, the Swedish entrepreneur came from poor farming stock and was dyslexic. He started selling seeds, pens, nylon stockings, boxes of matches and pencils as a teenager, using his bicycle to ride around local villages.

He subsequently studied business in Goteborg and founded Ikea to sell affordable furniture using money his father gave him. His first mail order catalogue appeared in 1951, his aim being to undercut all his rivals.

In 1994, newspaper reports linked Kamprad to the Swedish fascists who were Nazi sympathisers. Jewish groups called for a boycott of Ikea stores but business was hardly affected. He responded humbly, stating it had been “the most stupid mistake of my life”.

Even after becoming one of the world’s wealthiest men – Bloomberg Billionaires Index listed him as the world’s eighth richest – he appeared to lead a frugal life, in seclusion, driving an old Volvo, wearing second-hand clothes, flying economy class and staying in budget hotels and even assembling his own furniture.

It was a front to make the executives at Ikea follow his lead. In 1976, he wrote The Testament of a Furniture Dealer, instructing employees to be humble, clean-cut and courteous, and adopt the “Ikea spirit”.

On his death, aged 91 last month, his double life was uncovered.

He lived in Switzerland to avoid Swedish taxes, in a villa overlooking Lake Geneva; owned a vineyard in Provence and drove a Porsche alongside his Volvo. He was also an alcoholic.

He was married twice and is survived by a daughter and three sons, the youngest son becoming chairman when Kamprad stepped down from the Ikea board in 2013.