Ingvar Kamprad

Ingvar Kamprad {{Audio|sv-Ingvar_Kamprad.ogg|listen}} (born March 30, 1926) is an industrialist from Sweden.

Related Topics:
March 30 - 1926 - Industrialist - Sweden

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He founded IKEA, the home furnishing retail chain, in 1943.

Related Topics:
IKEA - Home - Furnishing - Retail - Chain - 1943

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Ingvar began to develop a business as a young boy, selling matches to neighbors from his bicycle. He found that he could buy matches in bulk very cheaply from Stockholm, sell them individually at a low price, and still make a good profit. From matches, he expanded to selling fish, Christmas tree decorations, seeds and later ball-point pens and pencils. When Ingvar was 17, his father gave him a gift for succeeding in his studies. He used this gift to establish what has grown into IKEA.

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The acronym IKEA is made up of the initials of his name plus those of Elmtaryd, the family farm where he was born; and Agunnaryd, a nearby village in the province of Småland.

Related Topics:
Agunnaryd - Småland

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Ingvar has admitted his dyslexia played a large part in the inner workings of the company. For example, the Swedish-sounding names of the furniture found at IKEA originally served as names chosen by Kamprad because he had difficulty remembering stock keeping units.

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Kamprad has lived outside Lausanne in Switzerland since 1976.

Related Topics:
Lausanne - Switzerland - 1976

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In 1994 it was revealed that Kamprad had attended some pro-Nazi meetings in his youth. He has since said he bitterly regrets that part of his life, calling it his greatest mistake. Kamprad was also at one time an alcoholic, which he also deeply regrets.

Related Topics:
1994 - Nazi - Alcoholic

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