Ingvar Kamprad Biography: Ikea Founder

Ingvar Kamprad Biography: IKEA Founder

Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of Ikea, was born in Småland, Sweden, in a small farm on March 30, 1926. When he was a child, he began selling matches in his neighborhood. When he was 17 years old Ikea. The letters are for their initials, the name of the farm of Vivia, as well as the town in which it grew. His little business has made him one of the best known entrepreneurs of all time.

When he was a child, his grandfather’s business almost declared himself in bankruptcy. The stress of this led to his grandfather’s suicide, and Kamprad’s grandmother, who managed to save the business, taught him the importance of resistance and perseverance. Maybe this was what led to his success as a businessman. His father rewarded him with small amounts of money for doing it well at school although he was dyslexico. After selling matches to his neighbors for a while, he began using his bicycle to reach more people. I bought stocolm bulk matchs and made a good profit sell them for more. It also started selling pencils and Christmas cards, as well as other items and finally when he was 17 years old Ikea began. In 1948, he began selling cheap furniture. The low prices angered other furniture brands in Sweden and pressed the suppliers to stop selling to Ikea. He ended up designing furniture that were destined to be assembled at home, something very different from what other companies were doing. The company continued to grow and began to distribute its products in countries around the world.

In 2017 it reinforced almost 48.000 million in income. Despite his status as a billionaire, Kamprad remained humble. He refused to buy a new car, so he drove an old Volvo for almost 20 years.

Ingvar Kamprad lived in Switzerland from 1976 to 2014 and died in January 17, 2018 when he was 91 years old, however Ikea is still one of the most successful and innovative furniture companies of all time. Kamprad contributed massively to the world with his company. Its cheap prices allowed products to be accessible to everyone. 

He is also inspiring in many ways, since he remained very humble although he was one of the richest people in the world. He also gave a large part of his fortune to his children and worried a lot about his employees and equality. He was very hardworking and always remembered what and where he came from. I think that all these things were a very successful person.