Ingvar Kamprad Biography & Net Worth

Popular Name:	Ingvar Kamprad
Real Name:	Feodor Ingvar Kamprad
Birth Date:	30 March 1926
Birth Place:	Pjätteryd, Sweden
Age:	Died on 27 January 2018 (aged 91)
Gender:	Male
Nationality/Citizenship:	Swede
Height:	N/A
Weight:	N/A
Sexuality:	Straight
Marital Status:	Married
Spouse(s):	Margaretha Kamprad-Stennert
Children:	4
Profession:	Businessman, Investor, Entrepreneur
Years active:	N/A
Net Worth:	$42 Billion
Last Updated:	2021

Ingvar Kamprad was the man who founded the Swedish retailing giant IKEA. This establishment is now recognized as one of the biggest brands in the world, known for its stylish and affordable furniture.

Born into humble beginnings, Ingvar started IKEA as a mail-order and direct import business when he was 17 years old. He started selling furniture in the years 1948 and introduced the IKEA brochure in 1950. In 1953, his furniture firm unveiled flat-pack, do-it-yourself furniture—an innovation that resolved high costs and minimized damages. The business subsequently exploded following an improvement of its distribution channels.

For IKEA’s 2020 fiscal year, the company posted nearly $40 billion in retail sales and had grown to a staff size of more than 200,000 people serving in more than five hundred sales locations around the world.

Here’s everything you need to know about Kamprad, the Swedish billionaire who passed away at the age of 91, at his home in Sweden on January 27, 2018, after living a well fulfilled and inspirational life.

Early Life: Childhood & Education

He was born in Pjätteryd, Sweden, on 30th March 1926, and was brought up in the Älmtaryd area of Ljungby Municipality. From his childhood days, Feodor Ingvar Kamprad had a reasonable sense of trading and started his first business of buying matches in huge amounts and reselling them individually. After making profit from that as a young boy, he switched to trading pencils, seeds, fish, and also decorative pieces.

Ingvar was a brilliant child at school. After getting good scores, his father gifted him with a prize in the form of a reasonable sum of money, with which he brought to life his idea of establishing a small company.

Professional Life: Business Career

In 1943, Ingvar Kamprad launched his first standard business venture with the name ‘IKEA’. He started off with a mail-order business and handled small stuff like pens, photo frames, wallets, and stockings, but did so well in growing the company to become one of the world’s largest furniture retailers in the present day.

He included furniture in his business in 1948, thereby expanding his startup company ‘IKEA’. From small order deliveries, the flourishing company began transporting their goods by trucks and also by cargoes in train. The company earned a good name in the furniture business and was transformed into a business entity that dealt only with furniture by 1950.

Ingvar Kamprad Net Worth — IKEA Founder, Ingvar Kamprad

With the massive success of the mail-ordering business, Ingvar realized the need for something like a showroom for his business. He followed out with the idea and inaugurated an ‘IKEA’ showroom in Almhult in 1953.

In the years that followed the explosion of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad tried to keep up with the business and balance demand with supply. He not only catered to the needs of his clients but also molded his enterprise in such a way that it continually fetched him profits, at an annually increasing rate.

With the rising popularity gained by the company, infuriated competitor companies worked together to try and stop Swedish traders from supplying IKEA with materials. Their plan worked out but Ingvar was miles smarter. He bought production materials from other countries instead and subsequently built their own commodities.

In 1956, this accomplished businessman came up with the idea of a special, easily erectable, do-it-yourself furniture, which became known as the ‘flat-pack furniture’. This brilliant invention that is sold in a dissembled bundle with instructions on how to assemble became a benchmark in the world of furniture. It not only guaranteed to reduce storage area but also cut down shipping charges. It was loved by many because it did not need expertise to assemble them. This helped IKEA reduce expenses while also maximizing gains because more clients who could easily arrange the goods themselves started to patronize the company. In 1965, the company started a customer retail storeroom in Stockholm, and since then, the company has been expanding far and wide.

Over the next five decades Ingvar’s company encountered a massive expansion in the business front and to date has more than 300 showrooms all over the world. In the year 2000, the company launched a new business venture by making their products available on the internet. This means they now have an easily accessible online store and this has unlimited prospects for the growth of the business.

In 2013, Ingvar stepped down from his position as the company’s board member but maintained his role as chairman of Stichting INGKA Foundation, a charitable organization he founded in 1982.

Books

Ingvar also wrote a book, titled, “A Testament of a Furniture Dealer”. He is also credited as the co-author of another book, “Leading by Design: The IKEA Story”, co-written with journalist Bertil Torekull.

Personal Life: Wife, Children, Private Interests

The entrepreneur took Margaretha Kamprad-Stennert as his second wife in 1963. We have intel that he had another marriage before meeting Ms. Margaretha, but the details of his first marriage are unavailable.

Ingvar Kamprad is the father of four children, namely Mathias Kamprad, Annika KIhlbom, Jonas Kamprad, and Peter Kamprad.

During one of his business ventures in Poland, Kamprad developed an addiction to alcohol.

Death

On 27 January 2018, Ingvar Kamprad died of pneumonia in his sleep at the age of 91. According to his will, half of his estate would go to projects in the sparsely populated part of Sweden called Norrland. It is said that he initially wanted to develop the area so that young people could live there.

Ingvar Kamprad net worth: Assets, Income Sources, Investments

The late Swedish billionaire had a net worth of more than $42 billion at the time of his passing in 2018. He is best known for the significant role he played in the founding and expansion of the multinational retail company IKEA, which specializes in furniture. Today, this company registered annual revenue of more than $40 billion. For much of his life, the businessman controlled IKEA through a combination of investments trusts and complex foundations, including the Interogo Foundation, and the Dutch Stichting INGKA Foundation which was, in May 2006, reported to be the world’s wealthiest charitable foundation by The Economist (though the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has grown larger).

Today, Ingvar Kamprad’s three sons control the family company, Ikano, which operates the IKEA franchise in various countries as an investment fund.