IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad has died at the age of 91.
The company released a statement confirming the passing of Kamprad this Saturday, Jan. 27, 2018 in his home located in Smaland, Sweden. If you’ve ever needed some furniture chances are you have been to IKEA before!
The mogul himself started the company at the young age of 17 and the store can be found in dozens of countries across the globe. According to DailyMail, IKEA, having as of now 411 locations, grew to the world’s largest furniture retailer since its start in 1943. In the statement, the company described their founder as “one of the greatest entrepreneurs of the 20th century” and mentioned that his passing was a peaceful one.
Ever wonder where the name IKEA came about? Turns out Kamprad used his initials IK to start to it off and used his family farm located in Elmtaryd (E) and home village of Agunnaryd (A) to finish off the last two letters of the renowned companies name. The idea all came about when Kamprad was attempting to fit a table into the trunk of his car and a friend suggested he take the legs off for it to fit.
Along with selling items in bulk to residents of his local city including matches, furniture and a mail to order catalog in the newspaper, it was at this moment that Kamprad came up with the concept of affordable furniture in which customers could assemble themselves. Although assembling IKEA furniture may not always be the easiest, it has managed to earn Kamprad his nearly £51billion net worth.
Although Kamprad was wealthy beyond anyone’s wildest dreams, he was known to be quite a frugal man. As mentioned in the DailyMail, The IKEA founder was known to fly on no-frills airlines, wear second-hand clothing from flea markets and drove a 15-year-old Volvo all while furnishing his home with IKEA items, which he assembled himself.
His frugalness did not stop there. During his trips throughout Europe, particularly in London, the billionaire refused to take taxi’s and always opted for the Tube or buses. If that wasn’t enough, Kamprad once took a bus to a gala evening in which he was receiving a businessman of the year award. Talk about saving money!
We can only wonder where the world of furniture would be had it not been for the clever ways of Kamprad. The company ended their statement by saying how Kamprad “will be missed and warmly remembered by his family and IKEA staff all around the world” and we could not agree more.
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