Kamprad, Ingvar Feodor, 1926–, Swedish business executive. In 1943 he founded IKEA, which began selling low-priced furniture in 1947. In the 1950s the company began designing its own furniture and home furnishings, becoming known for inexpensive, functional modern lines. In 1956 Kamprad debuted flat-boxed furniture, allowing customers to transport IKEA's products easily and IKEA to bypass warehousing with in-store inventory. IKEA's formula made it hugely successful, with hundreds of stores in several dozen nations, and IKEA eventually was organized so that it was controlled through a web of nonprofit and for-profit corporations that provided tax shelters and preserved family control. Kamprad, who resided in Switzerland from 1976, retired as chief executive of IKEA in 1986, but remained on the corporate and foundation boards that controlled IKEA. In 1988 IKEA's finance, insurance, and real estate business were separated from the company to form the Ikano Group. Kamprad retired from the board of Inter IKEA Group, then the key holding company, in 2013.
See his Leading By Design (with B. Torekull, 1998).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Business Leaders
