In December he is meeting in a court in the Netherlands, where the foundation which owns IKEA, and which is controlled by Mr. Kamprad, is located, in order to change the bylaws of the foundation so that it may give away money to charities. Presently, it can only give money to “innovations in architecture and interior designs”.

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In 1897 his grandfather killed himself with a shotgun when he could not pay the mortgage on his farm and three years after moving his wife and three children from the Sudetenland.

Kamprad’s widowed grandmenother saved the farm from bankruptcy by sheer willpower and hard work.

The founder and owner of Ikea had entrepreneurship and sales in his blood early on as a teenager. He peddled matches, fish, pens, Christmas cards and other items by bicycle. He began selling furniture in 1947.

According to BBC:

By the age of 17 he had formed a small company to enable him to bid for a contract to supply pencils. Within five years he had set up a mail-order firm and was sending goods out with the daily milk round.

Soon afterwards, he snapped up a disused factory and began turning out furniture. His low prices undercut the cosy Swedish cartel of the time which imposed a boycott on Kamprad’s company in the late 1950s.

Kamprad responded by turning to Polish producers for inexpensive components that could be assembled at home from flat packs. The modern Ikea was born.

The acronym IKEA is made up of the initials of his name (Ingvar Kamprad) plus those of Elmtaryd, the family farm where he was born; and the nearby village Agunnaryd.

Kamprad has lived in Epalinges, Switzerland since 1976. According to an interview with TSR, the French language Swiss TV broadcaster, Kamprad drives a 15 year old Volvo, and encourages IKEA employees to always write on both sides of a paper. In addition Kamprad has been known to visit IKEA for a cheap meal. He is also known to buy Christmas paper and presents in the post-Christmas sales.

Kamprad avoids wearing suits, flies economy class and frequents cheap restaurants. He has been quoted as saying that his luxuries are occasionally buying a nice cravat and eating Swedish fish roe. “How the hell can I ask people who work for me to travel cheaply if I am travelling in luxury?”, he says. “It’s a question of good leadership”. Or, as he also says: “I’m stingy and I’m proud of the reputation.”

Kamprad suffers from dyslexia. That has not prevented him from making sucess, but he has admitted that his dyslexia has played a part in the inner workings of the company. For example, the Swedish-sounding names of the furniture sold by IKEA were originally chosen by Kamprad because he had difficulty remembering numeral stock-keeping units.

As well, Kamprad has had a drinking problem. While working with furniture manufacturers in Poland earlier in his career, Kamprad became an alcoholic. However, he has said that his drinking is now under control

While Kamprad’s frugality is well documented, it is also an important part of the carefully managed image. He also owns a villa in an upmarket part of Switzerland, a large country estate in Sweden, and a vineyard in Provence in France. And for several years he drove a Porsche.

But basically, he is a focused, hardworking businessman with a frugal style who does not believe in wasting time.

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H&M is Europe’s second biggest clothing chain. On Thursday it was named Europe’s most valuable brand, beating such rivals as Zara and the British chain store Marks and Spencer. Financial Times writes:

The Swedish-based chain’s brand has a value of €10.37bn, according to the first ever rankings of European retailers by Interbrand, the brand consultants. It is well ahead of the rest of the pack, with runner-up Carrefour valued at €6.6bn.

And, not only that, IKEA, the world famous furniture store, placed at the number three spot on the same list, with a brand name value of €6,5 billion! In addition, that is only the brand name value in Europe – IKEA is a brand name in the US and other parts of the world as well. A great sucess for Sweden!

Here is the complete list of the top European brands:

2008 Rank	Brand	Country of origin	Sector	Brand value (€m)
1	H&M	Sweden	Apparel	10,366
2	Carrefour	France	General retailer	6,620
3	Ikea	Sweden	Home and furnishings	6,516
4	Tesco	UK	General retailer	5,617
5	Marks & Spencer	UK	General retailer	5,100
6	Zara	Spain	Apparel	4,112
7	Aldi	Germany	General retailer	2,675
8	Boots	UK	Health and beauty	2,003
9	El Corte Inglés	Spain	General retailer	1,930
10	Auchan	France	General retailer	1,860
11	Asda	UK	General retailer	1,224
12	MediaMarkt	Germany	Consumer electronics	1,094
13	Lidl	Germany	General retailer	910
14	Edeka	Germany	General retailer	905
15	C&A	Netherlands	Apparel	882
16	Sephora	France	Health and beauty	767
17	The Body Shop	UK	Health and beauty	727
18	Argos	UK	Home and furnishings	726
19	Mango	Spain	Apparel	702
20	Sainsbury’s	UK	General retailer	512
21	Kaufland	Germany	General retailer	418
22	Mercadona	Spain	General retailer	398
23	FNAC	France	Consumer electronics and books	379
24	Rewe	Germany	General retailer	303
25	Carphone Warehouse	UK	Telecoms	282

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

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