Ingvar Kamprad: how IKEA's enigmatic founder became a billionaire
Daniel Coughlin
07 February 2018
How Sweden's flatpack pioneer conquered the world with cheap Nordic design
IKEA's famously thrifty founder Ingvar Kamprad died on 27 January, having built up a global self-assembly furniture empire that has changed the way we shop. We delve into the controversial billionaire's past and chart his remarkable rise to success.
Humble origins
Ingvar Kamprad was born on 30 March 1926 in Pjätteryd, a sleepy farming village in southern Sweden, to German-born Frans Feodor Kamprad and his Swedish wife, Berta Linnéa Matilda Nilsson.
Money struggles
His grandfather Achem (pictured) had bought Elmtaryd Farm in nearby Agunnaryd but struggled financially. Unable to pay the mortgage, he took his own life in 1897, and the family farm passed to Ingvar's grandmother, Franziska.
Work ethic
Franziska battled to save the farm, which was threatened with repossession, working all hours and saving every penny. Ingvar's father Frans was equally hardworking and cautious with money, no doubt haunted by his father's financial ruin and suicide.
Entrepreneurial spirit
Ingvar had an entrepreneurial spirit from the get-go. Guided by his workaholic grandmother and frugal father, the enterprising youngster began selling matches at the age of five, and soon developed a knack for making money.
Farm life
When he was six, Ingvar and his parents moved to the family farm. The future billionaire was expected to work as much as possible and contribute to the family's earnings, on top of doing well at school, which was a challenge for the young Ingvar, who was dyslexic.
Bulk buying
Almost unbelievably, at just seven years of age, Ingvar figured out he could make more money by buying matches in bulk from a supplier in Stockholm, so he got on his bike and cycled to the Swedish capital to stock up.
Branching out
Over the following few years, the business-minded kid diversified, moving on from matches to selling fresh fish, as well as Christmas tree decorations, pens, pencils and even berries he'd picked in the local pine forests.
Nazi propaganda
Ingvar spent many childhood summers with relatives in central Germany, where he was exposed to Nazi propaganda, especially in the latter part of the 1930s when war was looming ever closer.
Fascist group
In 1942 at the height of World War II, 16-year-old Ingvar joined the fascist Lindholmers group and was actively involved in the organisation throughout the conflict, despite living in neutral Sweden.
New Swedish Movement
In fact, even after the war ended, Ingvar's sympathies continued to lean towards the far right, and he is believed to have supported another pro-Nazi organisation, the New Swedish Movement, up until the 1950s, a shocking secret that was revealed in 1994.
Biggest mistake
That same year, Ingvar described his membership of the New Swedish Movement as “the greatest mistake of my life”, but that didn't stop him calling the movement's founder Per Engdahl (pictured) “a great man” in an interview with Swedish author and journalist Elisabeth Åsbrink in 2010.
IKEA founded
A year after he joined the New Swedish Movement, Ingvar founded IKEA. The 17-year-old had overcome his dyslexia to excel in his school leaving exams, and his proud father awarded him with a sum of money for the achievement, which was used to set up the firm.
Business name
IKEA is actually a simple acronym of the initials of its founders name and surname, as well as the first letters of Elmtaryd and Agunnaryd, the farm and nearby village where he grew up. Ingvar started out by selling replicas of the modern kitchen table that sat in his Uncle Ernst's kitchen.
Wider range
The imitation tables sold like hot cakes. In 1948, Ingvar increased the range and began to offer his customers a wide variety of affordable furniture, which he sold via mail order, using an old milk cart to ferry the goods to the local railway station for shipping.
First wife
In 1950, Ingvar married Swedish Radio secretary Kerstin Wadling, and the couple adopted a girl, Annika Kihlbom, not long after. The union was not a happy one, and the couple divorced acrimoniously in 1961.
Drink problem
Ingvar turned to booze to help him cope with the fallout from the divorce, and developed a serious drinking problem. For much of the rest of his life, the IKEA boss was a functioning alcoholic, who would give up the drink periodically to keep his habit under some sort of control.
Catalogue launch
Ingvar launched the famous annual IKEA catalogue in 1951 and opened a showroom in 1953. Sales were buoyant, but not spectacular. That is until the thrift-conscious entrepreneur had his eureka moment.
Flatpack revolution
One fateful day in 1956, Ingvar was packing up some furniture for shipping when he spotted a couple of delivery men removing the legs from a table to fit it in their vehicle, and the flatpack revolution was born.
First superstore
The shrewd businessman worked out he could slash prices yet maintain quality by selling furniture in parts that customers could assemble themselves. Sales skyrocketed and the first proper IKEA superstore opened in 1958 in Älmhult, southern Sweden.
Scandi expansion
IKEA expanded throughout Sweden and into Norway and Denmark during the 1960s, despite an early failed foray into television manufacturing, not to mention a sustained campaign by hostile competitors that forced Swedish suppliers to stop selling to the firm.
Foreign supppliers
Ingvar turned instead to suppliers in other countries, and the Swedish supplier boycott ended up being a blessing in disguise. Sourcing cheaper overseas suppliers brought prices down further, undercutting the competition and boosting sales.
Second wife
In 1963, Ingvar wed his second wife, 20-year-old Margaretha Stennert, and the couple went on to have three sons. Peter, Jonas and Mathias are all still heavily involved in their father's business. The couple remained happily married until Margaretha's death in 2011.
Cost-cutting
Ingvar's obsession with extreme cost-cutting helped maximise his firm's profits no end. He encouraged employees to find savings wherever they could, including writing on both sides of a piece of paper, and chastised staff for wasteful behaviour such as leaving lights on.
Global growth
IKEA expanded outside Scandinavia during the 1970s, opening superstores in Switzerland, West Germany and Japan during the early part of the decade, followed by locations in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and Singapore later on.
Nordic design
By this time, the flatpack furniture company was getting a reputation worldwide for offering minimalist Nordic design to the masses, at rock-bottom prices that practically anyone could stretch to.
Tax exile
In 1973, Ingvar decamped to Denmark to escape Sweden's punishing tax regime. After three years in Denmark, the IKEA boss moved to Switzerland, where he remained, as a tax exile, until 2013.
Miserly ways
While living in Switzerland, Ingvar sponsored the local soccer team in which his son was a key player. When his son got bored and decided to stop playing, Ingvar promptly cancelled the deal and pulled the sponsorship cash.
Frugal image
Ingvar cultivated a frugal image, boasting about driving a sensible Volvo, buying clothes in thrift stores, bartering in markets and flying economy, but he wasn't as austerity-conscious as he sometimes claimed to be.
Hidden luxuries
The IKEA head honcho secretly drove a top-of-the-range Porsche, and owned a large villa overlooking Lake Geneva, a substantial 18th-century country estate in Sweden, and a vineyard in Provence.
IKEA bible
Ingvar published his first booklet in 1976, A Testament of a Furniture Dealer, which outlined his personal philosophy and vision. The tome, which extols the virtues of simplicity and economy, has since become the IKEA employees' bible.
Charitable foundation
In 1982, Ingvar handed over ownership of IKEA to the Netherlands-based Stichting INGKA Foundation, a complex web of non-profit subsidiaries set up to avoid Sweden's high taxes, which has ballooned into one of the world's largest charitable foundations.
Unstoppable growth
IKEA continued to grow explosively in the 1980s, with stores opening in France, Spain and Belgium, followed by the USA, the UK and Italy. By the 1990s, the chain was one of the world's largest furniture retailers.
Reluctant philanthropist
Ingvar upped his foundation's charitable donations in 1994 following the pro-Nazi revelations. Before this, the foundation was accused of being the most stingy in the world, and Ingvar was criticised for a lack of meaningful philanthropy.
Booming times
In the 1990s, IKEA expanded further, and Ingvar's fortune had mushroomed, if the assets of the flatpack's king's Stichting INGKA Foundation are anything to go by. By this point, it was second richest charity in the world after the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Disputed wealth
In 2004, a Swedish magazine, which had calculated the assets and endowments of the charitable foundation, proclaimed Ingvar one of the richest people on the planet, something the IKEA boss disputed.
Legal pressure
Forbes put Ingvar's net worth at a peak of $33 billion (£23.6bn) in 2007, which made him the fourth wealthiest person in the world, but revised the figure down dramatically in 2011 to $6 billion (£4.3bn) after pressure from the IKEA founder's legal team.
Winding down
In 2013, Ingvar resigned from the Stichting INGKA Foundation and passed the reigns to his youngest son, Mathias (pictured, centre). That same year, the retired entrepreneur moved back to Sweden to be closer to his extended family.
Soaring fortune
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Ingvar's net worth had surged to $58.7 billion (£42.1bn) by 2015, while Forbes estimated his fortune that year at a far more modest but still sizeable $3.5 billion (£2.5bn).
Impressive legacy
Ingvar leaves a thriving multinational business, which has changed the way we shop. Now the world's largest furniture retailer, IKEA owns and operates 411 superstores in 49 countries, and turns over $35 billion (£25.1bn) a year.
Inheritance favouritism
Ingvar's sons have inherited a generous minority stake in IKEA, which is worth around $1.5 billion (£1.1bn), but the flatpack king's adopted daughter Annika wasn't quite so lucky. Ingvar left her a relatively paltry $300,000 (£215k), a tiny fraction of his net worth.
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