Ikea's founder: Who was Ingvar Kamprad?
Wednesday, 9 January 2019
Born in 1926 on a small farm in the Swedish province of Småland, Ingvar Feodor Kamprad, the founder of the globally dominant and iconic furniture store IKEA, was a man known for his frugality and work ethic.
He founded Ikea at the age of 17 in a shed selling pencils and postcards, and died last January at age 91, the eighth richest man in the world. According to Bloomberg, who maintain a billionaires index, he was estimated to be worth US$58.7 billion (NZ$87.29b) upon his death.
Kamprad has been hailed as both the man that brought good quality, affordable, scandinavian design to the middles classes in a way that revolutionised european interiors; and as the pioneer of a genius business model that introduced the touch and feel showroom, and the flat pack/self-assembly model to the furniture business.
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IKEA is derived from his name and birthplace - Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd. Farmers in the area where he grew up commonly made furniture as an additional business, and Kamprad introduced furniture sales to IKEA five years after its inception.
IKEA eventually became a celebration of all things Swedish. Swedish design, Swedish food and each product has a Swedish name. The original was a chair called Ruth. It was also conceived with a philosophy in mind.
'To create a better everyday life for the many people,' and 'to offer a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them.'
He wrote The Testament of Furniture Dealer to establish this philosophy for his workers, which contains imperatives such as 'Expensive solutions to any kind of problem are usually the work of mediocrity,' 'No method is more effective than the good example,' and 'Waste of resources is one of the greatest diseases of mankind'.
Perhaps this is why, despite his riches, he wasn't a big spender.
He always flew economy, had his hair cut in developing countries because it was cheaper, and drove a 1993 Volvo for two decades until it was too dangerous to drive. Although some have questioned how genuine his legendary frugality really was.
Kamprad was also widely criticised as a tax evader, having set up a complex company structure to give the brand 'eternal life' and keep it off the stock markets.
He devised to separate the retail and brand operations with separate ownership, as well as establishing a franchise system, which he operated through a charitable trust in Holland.
A vocal critic of Sweden's high taxes in the 1970s, he spent 40 years in Switzerland as a tax exile, but returned to his Swedish hometown in 2013 after the death of his wife.
He died there, at home surrounded by family.
In a statement released by the family at the time of his death, his sons promised to 'sustain his legacy and do what we can to ensure the core values and unique IKEA concept are carried on to the future'.
IKEA will be opening a flagship store in New Zealand, with announcements expected on Friday.