STOCKHOLM • Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad, who built a global business empire with revolutionary flat-pack furniture and was known for his contempt for taxes, has died aged 91.
The Swedish furnishing giant said in a statement yesterday: "One of the greatest entrepreneurs of the 20th century, Ingvar Kamprad, has peacefully passed away, at his home in Smaland, Sweden, on Jan 27." He had suffered a brief illness.
"His legacy will be admired for many years to come and his vision - to create a better everyday life for the many people - will continue to guide and inspire us," Mr Jesper Brodin, CEO and president of the Ikea Group, said in the statement.
Born in 1926 to a farming family in the southern Smaland region, Mr Kamprad started off selling matches to neighbours at the age of five and soon diversified his inventory to include seeds, Christmas tree decorations, pencils and ball-point pens.
He founded Ikea in 1943 at age 17 but did not hit gold until 1956, when the company pioneered flat-pack furniture. He got the idea as he watched an employee taking the legs off a table to fit it into a customer's car and realised that saving space meant saving money.
The retailer is now heading for €50 billion (S$81.2 billion) in annual revenues.
Despite his success and wealth, which Bloomberg estimated at US$58.7 billion (S$76.7 billion), Mr Kamprad's modest spending habits bordered on the obsessive.
In 1973, he fled Sweden's higher tax structure for Denmark before seeking even lower taxes in Switzerland.
Starting in 2010, Mr Kamprad gradually made way at the helm of for his three sons, finally returning to live in Sweden in 2014.
The Consortium of Investigative Journalists in 2014 cited leaked tax files from Luxembourg when it identified Ikea as one of the giant multinationals fingered for corporate tax avoidance by shuffling money to tax havens.
Last year, the European Commission said it had launched an investigation into Ikea's tax deals in the Netherlands. The group insists it complies with national and international tax regulations.
Mr Kamprad was also known for his ties to the Swedish Nazi party during his early days. He said he stopped attending its meetings in 1948.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
