Despite his wealth, IKEA founder led a modest, down-to-earth life
STOCKHOLM — IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad, who turned a small-scale mail order business started on his family’s farm into a furniture empire by letting customers piece together his simple and inexpensive furniture themselves, has died at age 91.
Kamprad died Saturday at his home in Smaland, in southern Sweden, the chain’s Swedish unit, IKEA Sverige, said on Twitter on Sunday. He died peacefully following a short illness, it said.
“He will be much missed and warmly remembered by his family and IKEA staff all around the world,” the company said.
The IKEA Group’s president, Jesper Brodin, said 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.”
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 remain at the core of its corporate identity today. But his missteps in life, including early flirtations with Nazism, never rubbed off on IKEA, one of the world’s most recognizable brands.
Along the way, Kamprad became extremely rich, though estimates of his wealth vary wildly, from slightly more than $100 million to nearly $60 billion when he died.
Kamprad formed the company’s name from his own initials and the first letters of the family farm, Elmtaryd, and the parish where it’s located, Agunnaryd. The farm is in the heart of Smaland, a forested province whose people are known for their thrift and ingenuity, qualities Kamprad possessed.
Kamprad, despite his wealth, never adopted the aura of a tycoon, though his name regularly appeared on lists of the world’s richest men. He drove a modest Volvo and dressed unassumingly. In a 1998 book he co-authored about IKEA’s history, he described his habit of visiting vegetable street markets right before they closed for the day, hoping to get better prices.
Kamprad, who was born on March 30, 1926, was a precocious entrepreneur who sold matchboxes to neighbors from his bicycle. He found that he could buy the matchboxes in bulk very cheaply from Stockholm and sell them at a low price but still make a good profit. From matches, he expanded to selling fish, Christmas tree decorations, seeds and later ballpoint pens and pencils.
He began advertising in local newspapers and operating a makeshift mail order catalog.
In 1950, Kamprad introduced furniture, pieces produced by manufacturers in the forests close to his home, into his catalog. After the positive response he received, he decided to discontinue all other products and focus on low-priced furniture.