Founder of global furniture giant Ikea dies
● Boss known for his frugality started out selling matchboxes
Ingvar Kamprad – the Ikea founder who turned a smallscale mail order business into a global furniture empire – has died aged 91.
Ikea Sverige, the chain’s Swedish unit, announced on Twitter Mr Kamprad died Saturday at his home in Smaland, southern Sweden.
He was said to have died peacefully following a short illness.
“He will be much missed and warmly remembered by his family and Ikea staff all around the world,” the company said.
Jesper Brodin, chief executive and president of the Ikea Group, said Mr Kamprad’s “legacy will be admired for many years to come and his vision – to create a better everyday life for many people – will continue to guide and inspire us”. Mr Kamprad’s life story is intimately linked to the company he founded at age 17 on the family farm.
His work ethic, frugality and down-to-earth style remains at the core of Ikea’s corporate identity today. But his missteps in life, including early flirtations with Nazism, never rubbed off on Ikea, one of the world’s most recognisable brands.
Mr Kamprad formed the company’s name from his own initials and the first letters of the family farm, Elmtaryd, and the parish of Agunnaryd where it is located.
Later in life, his name often appeared on lists of the world’s richest men, but he never adopted the aura of a tycoon. He drove a modest Volvo and dressed unassumingly.
In a 1998 book that he coauthored about Ikea’s history, he described his habit of visiting vegetable street markets right before they closed for the day, hoping to get a better price. Born on 30 March 1926, Mr Kamprad was a precocious entrepreneur who sold match boxes to neighbours from his bicycle. He found he could buy them in bulk very cheaply from Stockholm and sell them at a low price, but still make a good profit.
Mr Kamprad soon moved away from making individual sales calls and started advertising in local newspapers and operating a makeshift mailorder catalogue.
He distributed his products via the local milk van, which delivered them to the nearby train station.
In 1950,k amp rad introduced furniture into his catalogue, pieces produced by local manufacturers in the forests close to his home. After the positive response he received, he soon decided to discontinue all other products and focus just on low-priced furniture.
Since then the Ikea concept – keeping prices low by letting the customers assemble the furniture themselves – offers affordable home furnishings at stores across the globe.