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Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad dies at 91

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Deleted member 15428

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Oct 27, 2017
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The founder of Sweden's Ikea furniture chain, Ingvar Kamprad, has died at at the age of 91.

"The founder of IKEA and Ikano, and one of the greatest entrepreneurs of the 20th century, Ingvar Kamprad, has peacefully passed away, at his home in Småland, Sweden, on the 27th of January," the company said in a statement.

He had founded Ikea at the age of 17 and built it into one of the world's biggest retailers.

One of the world's richest people, he had not been involved in a managerial role at Ikea since 1988 but had been serving as an adviser.

The frugal billionaire had a reputation for penny pinching, which he claims helped Ikea to become one of the world's top brand names, and wore secondhand clothes bought at flea markets. "It's in the nature of Småland to be thrifty," he said in documentary released in 2016, referring to Sweden's southern agricultural region where he was born.
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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jan/28/ikea-founder-ingvar-kamprad-dies-aged-91

Fun fact:
Worldwide, approximately 208 million copies of the Ikea catalogue were printed in fiscal year 2013, more than double the number of Bibles expected to be printed in the same period.
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Deleted member 2171

User requested account closure
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Oct 25, 2017
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His funeral will be as his customers have lived. Let down by cheap wood and six tools for one nut.
 
Weegian

Weegian

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,732
Ingvar
Kamprad
Elmtaryd (the farm where he grew up)
Agunnaryd (the village the farm is located in)

in case you were wondering
 
M4xim1l1ano

M4xim1l1ano

Member
Oct 29, 2017
1,094
Santiago, Stockholm, Vienna
Tack för allt Ingvar!
I fredags var jag på besök i Ikea i Wien och det var en trevlig känsla av att kunna handla köttbullar och svenska lantchips i Österrike!

Så tack för att du inger en "hemma-känsla" fast man bor utomlands!
 
BlackLagoon

BlackLagoon

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Oct 25, 2017
2,763
Krejlooc said:
Well this just took a massive turn...
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There's also the fact that IKEA hasn't been Swedish for some time. It's actually a Dutch charity that unfortunately can barely afford to do any charitable works because it pays all its profits as licensing fees to a holding company in Luxembourg that owns the IKEA branding.
 
Westbahnhof

Westbahnhof

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
10,108
Austria
I wanted to write "RIP, you're with Josef Frank now", but seeing how Frank was a jewish man who moved to Sweden to get away from nazis.. Maybe not.
 
MikeProtagonist

MikeProtagonist

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Oct 26, 2017
7,340
I've got a ton of furniture that I couldn't have afforded without Ikea - certainly not as a student (three pieces survive since 2003-ish). Thanks Ingvar.
 
vrcsix

vrcsix

Member
Oct 29, 2017
1,083
BlackLagoon said:
There's also the fact that IKEA hasn't been Swedish for some time. It's actually a Dutch charity that unfortunately can barely afford to do any charitable works because it pays all its profits as licensing fees to a holding company in Luxembourg that owns the IKEA branding.
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I mean, it's scummy and all, but at the same time you can't help being impressed by clever tax-avoidance schemes.
 
NekoNeko

NekoNeko

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
18,447
Birdseye said:
He was also a fascist/nazi apologist until quite late in his life: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14661582
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zGHQb4O.gif
 

Deleted member 4247

User requested account closure
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Oct 25, 2017
8,896
Good or bad as a person, what he started is a Swedish institution. Everyone goes to IKEA, it's just the default place to buy furniture (at least for non-wealthy people). Most of my furniture is from there. Not because I couldn't afford to go to a more expensive store, but why spend more money than necessary? IKEA has everything, and their super affordable furniture is good enough.
 
SantaC

SantaC

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,763
Swedish founder of the Ikea furniture chain, Ingvar Kamprad, has died at the age of 91, the company has announced.

Mr Kamprad - who pioneered flat-pack furniture - died at his home in Småland, Ikea confirmed in a statement.

The company said that Mr Kamprad was "one of the greatest entrepreneurs of the 20th century".

The billionaire, who was born in 1926 in Småland, founded Ikea at the age of 17.

https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-europe-42851668
 
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