Contents
Ingvar Kamprad
Founding IKEA and building a global business around affordable, self-assembled furniture.
IKEA catalogue · Flat-pack retail
- Born
- 30 March 1926
- Birthplace
- Pjätteryd, Sweden
- Died
- 27 January 2018
More people
Ingvar Kamprad
Ingvar Kamprad was a Swedish entrepreneur whose mail-order company grew into an international home-furnishing retailer.
Early life
Farm upbringing
Grew up at Elmtaryd in Småland.
Early selling
Sold matches and other small goods as a child.
Career
- 1943
Company founded
Registered IKEA at seventeen.
- 1948
Furniture added
Expanded the company’s range into furniture.
- 1958
First store
Opened the first IKEA store in Älmhult.
Companies & projects
IKEA catalogue
Used print to bring a furniture range into customers’ homes.
Flat-pack retail
Helped develop a business built around efficient packing and customer assembly.
A Furniture Dealer’s Testament
Set out his company’s principles of economy and simplicity.
Beyond work
Family succession
His three sons later took leading business roles.
Fascist involvement
Apologised in 1994 for his youthful involvement in a Swedish fascist movement.
Sources & photo credit
Biography and career ↗Further source ↗Identity and date cross-check ↗Photo: Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications of Sweden /Sandra Baqirjazid. CC BY 2.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
