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.
Ingvar Kamprad, pictured in 2012.
Ingvar Kamprad, pictured in 2012. Photograph: Jean-Christophe Bott/EPA
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.