Kamprad Born: IKEA Founder Changes How the World Furnishes
Ingvar Kamprad founded IKEA in 1943 when he was 17, selling pens and matches by mail from the family farm in Älmhult, Sweden. He got the furniture idea a few years later. The flat-pack concept — ship the pieces, let the customer assemble — solved the logistics problem of distributing furniture cheaply across wide distances. By 2019 IKEA had 433 stores, operated in 50 countries, and sold an estimated 700 million products per year. Kamprad drove a fifteen-year-old Volvo, flew economy class, and stayed in cheap hotels. He also had a teenage membership in a Swedish Nazi organization, which he later called the biggest mistake of his life. Born March 30, 1926, in Pjätteryd. He died in 2018 at 91. His family is one of the wealthiest on earth.
March 30, 1926
100 years ago
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