Their way of selling their products revolutionized the furniture market by lowering production costs. This allowed him to earn millions of dollars in Europe.
Ingavar Kamprad He was the founder of one of the most recognized companies in Europe in the field of construction and sales of furniture and household items, IKEA. The Swiss businessman managed to gather a net worth of thousands of million dollars until he died in 2018, aged 91. Its success is studied in universities.
At the time of his departure, his brand was in 28 countries and employed more than 155,000 workers. The latest reports from 2023 revealed that the chain It has 475 stores, more than 219,000 employees and generates around 710 million euros in net profits. Much of this success is due to the business model that Kamprad formed in 1943.
How were the beginnings of Ingvar Kamprad
The late billionaire was born in Sweden during the winter of 1926. He came from a family of landowners who had arrived in the Scandinavian country at the end of the 19th century. Its origin made his entrepreneurial spirit emerged and at the age of five he was selling matches. At the age of ten he started selling bicycles, fish and Christmas decorations during the holidays. The emergence of IKEA reached 17 yearswith the investment of the money that his father gave him as a reward for his good grades.
The beginning of the European giant was characterized by selling small household utensils. The name of the venture is due to the combination of the first letters of his name, Ingver Kramprad (I and K) and the last two from the combination of the name of his family farm, Elmtarys (E) and that of his town, Angunnaryd (A). Their business model began by buying wholesale and investing their profits to diversify their products.
Ingvar Kamprad 2.jpg
IKEA
His success would come in the mid-1950s, when he added the sale of furniture to his business and its characteristic sale of furniture to assemble at home. The latter revolutionized the market by reducing production costs and prices, so that the client could do part of the work at home. Its success was resounding and the furniture sellers’ union in Sweden pressured to exclude Kamprad’s venture from the country’s most important fairs.
The hostile actions of the union and its competition prompted the founder of IKEA to make his own designs and go abroad. This last factor was what drove the purchase of raw materials from Asian countries and the opening of sales points in the rest of Europe. His mandate formed the foundations of the empire in household products, which he would give up his command in 1986 to inherit his position to his children and would take the position of advisor.
What was Ingvar Kamprad’s secret to becoming a millionaire?
The Swiss had a net worth of $58 billion but lived a lifestyle that was far from the standard of billionaires and their luxuries. Kamprad’s maximum law of life was: “Everything we earn we need as a reserve”. This way of being led him to save in an extreme way.
Ingvar Kamprad 3.jpg
TN
The founder of IKEA was known for his low costs on vacations, business trips and in his life itself. Despite leading a comfortable life, Kamprad flew economy class, stayed in budget hotels and drove a mid-range car, a Volvo 240Gl, which was more than 20 years old.. The former billionaire indicated that he learned his attitude towards taking care of money in the small town where he grew up: “It is in the nature of Smaland to be thrifty.”
Source: Ambito
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
