When was ikea founded

Executive Lifestyle. Katie Warren. Ikea is the world's largest furniture retailer , according to Forbes. In his youth, Kamprad had ties to pro-Nazi groups , which he later apologized for and called "his biggest mistake. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Ikea is the world's largest furniture retailer, according to Forbes.

Ikea was founded in by Ingvar Kamprad, a reclusive Swedish billionaire who died in January Kamprad grew up on a farm in southern Sweden. Kamprad was only 17 years old when he started what would become the world's largest furniture retailer.

As a young man, Kamprad had ties to pro-Nazi groups. Over the years, Kamprad grew Ikea into a multibillion-dollar business with hundreds of stores across the world. Despite his wildly successful company, Kamprad lived a relatively frugal lifestyle. His home in Switzerland, a single-story ranch villa overlooking Lake Geneva, was relatively modest for a multibillionaire. The Swedish billionaire was married twice and had four children.

Kamprad's three sons, Jonas, Peter, and Mathias, are now in their early and mid 50s. Ingvar's oldest son, Peter Kamprad, is the chairman of Ikano Group. Jonas Kamprad is also a board member at Ikano Group. In addition to sitting on the board of Ikano Group like his brothers, the youngest Kamprad brother, Mathias, serves on the supervisory board of Inter Ikea Group, which operates most Ikea stores. The man who turned flat pack Scandinavian-designed furniture into a global phenomenon was born on a small farm called Elmtaryd, near the village of Agunnaryd in Smaland.

That may not mean much to those of us who didn't grow up in Sweden, but to Swedes, the region was a symbol of the challenges that came with rural poverty. Kamprad was an enterprising soul and started early by selling matches when he was 6 although The Guardian says his business skills started showing when he was 5 , and at 10 he was on his bike selling Christmas decorations, fish, and pencils.

IKEA was born when Kamprad was just 17, with seed money his father gave him for doing well at school via Sweden. By , he was selling furniture crafted by local manufacturers in Smaland, and by , Kamprad had made his first million.

The first IKEA sold small household goods like pens, wallets, and frames for pictures. It would be five years before the store got into the furniture business. In , Kamprad was using milk trucks to deliver his products. Two years later, in , he started selling furniture made by local manufacturers. After all, his area of Sweden was pretty rural and remote. Reaching customers in bigger cities, especially back in the s and s, was difficult.

Ingvar launched the iconic IKEA catalog in The prices were so low that people were skeptical about the quality of the furniture, so Kamprad rented an old workshop into a showroom to display his furniture.

A few years later, Kamprad solved the problem of the expense of shipping large furniture when he took the legs of a coffee table so it could be packed flat.

From that point on, as many products as possible were packed in this manner. It saved customers and IKEA money to pack items this way. Kamprad solved this by bringing production and design in-house. His concept was complete. Beds have Norwegian place names, sofas are named after Swedish towns, kitchen tables have Finnish geographic names, chairs mostly have male names, and rugs mostly have Danish names. Anecdotes about Kamprad abound.

He drove an old Volvo. He gave no interviews. IKEA has dodged anti-corporate sentiments remarkably well. Few allegations of poor labour practices, bad environmental policies or arrogant customer service have tarnished the brand name. Is there room for expansion?

Share with your friends. A country of innovation. Astrid Lindgren — a voice to be reckoned with. A cashless society.