Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad dies in Sweden at 91

The swedish founder of the ikea furniture chain, ingvar kamprad, has died on the age of 91, the business enterprise has announced.

Mr kamprad - who pioneered flat-p.C. Furnishings - died at his home in småland, ikea confirmed in a declaration.

The enterprise stated that mr kamprad changed into "one of the greatest entrepreneurs of the 20th century".

The billionaire, who was born in 1926 in småland, founded ikea on the age of 17.

He used a few cash his father had given him as a present for acting well at college in spite of his dyslexia.

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Mr kamprad "peacefully passed away at his home", ikea's announcement stated."he labored till the very end of his life, staying proper to his own motto that most matters stay to be performed," it introduced. Mr kamprad sooner or later stepped down from the enterprise's board in 2013, at the age of 87.

"ingvar kamprad become a wonderful entrepreneur of the standard southern swedish type - hardworking and cussed, with numerous warm temperature and a playful twinkle in his eye," the agency said.

His enterprise's designs became popular in element due to their simplicity and cost.

Mr kamprad is stated to have come up with the concept of flat-p.C. Furniture after watching an employee remove the legs from a table so that you can suit it right into a purchaser's car.

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Fixtures dressmaker jeff banks said that mr kamprad's creations radically modified how humans made and designed merchandise for the house.

"humans have tried to breed and copy that, however unsuccessfully," he stated.

Mr banks delivered that the designs produced and bought through the retailer made accurate use of recyclable products, including that mr kamprad was "head and shoulders above the rest".Mr kamprad changed into famend for his devotion to frugality, reportedly driving an old volvo and traveling by using economy elegance.

In a 2016 interview with swedish television channel tv4, mr kamprad stated that it become "in the nature of småland to be thrifty".

"in case you observe me now, i do not assume i'm wearing something that wasn't offered at a flea market," he said.

He instructed the channel that he constructed his commercial enterprise on a "neighborhood ethos".

"we have småland in the blood, and we realize what a krona is - although it isn't as a good deal as it become while we offered candy and went to standard school," he said, relating to the swedish currency.

Human beings took to social media on sunday to pay their respects to the "greatest swedish entrepreneur to have ever lived".

Swedish foreign minister margot wallstrom tweeted her condolences, saying that mr kamprad had put sweden at the map.

Ikea: key records
Ikea started out in 1943 and now has 389 shops worldwide
The name comes from mr kamprad's initials (ik), together with the call of the farm he grew up on - elmtaryd (e)- and the nearby village agunnaryd (a)
The agency's retail income totalled 36.4bn euros ($43bn, £30bn) in 2016
Its flat-percent fixtures became iconic both for its affordability and for its photograph-based totally assembly instructions
Ikea has remained privately-owned under a dutch agree with operated with the aid of the kamprad own family. Its complex business structure has drawn controversy and the european commission stated closing 12 months that it had launched an research into ikea's tax arrangements.

The ecu green birthday celebration said that the arrangement had allowed the corporation to keep away from paying a few €1bn in tax between 2009 and 2014.

A spokesman for dutch-based inter ikea, one of the company's two divisions, said that the corporation were taxed "according with european policies".

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In an interview inside the 1980s, mr kamprad said that his imaginative and prescient for ikea became that it'd be a agency that might make existence less complicated for its clients.

Inside the later years of his lifestyles, mr kamprad had faced questions over his past hyperlinks to the nazis.

The tycoon revealed a few elements of his beyond in a e-book in 1988, admitting that he was a near buddy of the swedish fascist activist according to engdahl, and a member of his new swedish motion between 1942 and 1945.

He said that his involvement was younger "stupidity" and the "best mistake" of his existence.

However a 2011 e book via elisabeth asbrink alleged information beyond what mr kamprad had previously admitted. She wrote that he was an active recruiter for a swedish nazi institution, and stayed close to sympathisers well after global conflict two.

At the time a spokesman for mr kamprad said he had lengthy admitted flirting with fascism, however that there have been now "no nazi-sympathising mind in ingvar's head whatsoever".