Ingvar Kamprad

Ingvar Kamprad is the creator of IKEA shop. He was born on a farm, in Elmtaryd. This farm is very close to Agunnaryd in Sweden. Agunnaryd is a small urban centre very close to Lake of Agunnarydsjö. At a young age, he began selling matches purchased in Stockholm in the countryside. He had an excellent income and he then decided to diversify to other goods such as food, garlands for Christmas and some things for school. When he was 17 years old, his father gave him a reward for being a good student. He used this money to create IKEA. The root of the name IKEA stems from the I for Ingvar, K for Kamprad, E for Elmtaryd and A for Agunnaryd. In the beginning, he sold many kinds of merchandise. When he had a lot of clients he began to sell by mail. Finally, in 1947, Kamprad focused on furniture only.

When he started to sell furniture, he only bought it from local craftsmen to limit the manufacturing costs. Next, he had the great idea of having a display area. The shopper could see, touch and feel the piece of furniture before buying. Finally, due to strong competition, IKEA finally had to produce its own furniture. The success of IKEA was due to the genius of Kamprad. He put together design, functionality, quality and moreover, low cost. In 2004, Kamprad was considered to be richer than Bill Gates.