Word: kamprad
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...KAMPRAD: To get Americans to lower their ceilings. When we came here 20 years ago, our ready-made curtains were too short...
IKEA, the Swedish home-furnishings giant, is in expansion mode, especially in the U.S. and Russia. Although he is retired, IKEA's founder, Ingvar Kamprad, 78, regularly visits some of the chain's 204 stores in 33 countries. Last month, he talked with TIME's DODY TSIANTAR in the restaurant of the Elizabeth, N.J., store. Some excerpts...
...early 1940s, most small-town Swedish children were busy with socializing and schoolwork, but not Ingvar Kamprad, who was obsessed with selling matches to his neighbors (the business-savvy child would ride his bicycle from house to house). Success with matches led to other bulk products like fish, pencils and Christmas-tree decorations. Little did Kamprad know that his efforts would grow into a $12.2 billion multinational retail business with more than 150 instantly recognizable blue-and-yellow megastores...
...Kamprad created Ikea with a cash gift from his father. The name was derived from his initials plus the first letters of the farm and village where he grew up (Elmtaryd, Agunnaryd). The idea was--and still is--to create and sell innovative design at a great price. Initially he sold such items as pens, picture frames and nylon stockings. But he was interested in the work of mid-century furniture designers like Charles Eames, Arne Jacobsen and Russel Wright. Eventually Kamprad turned his focus to mail-order catalogs and stores that could sell his wares on a mass scale...
...Flat Pack Of Lies? IKEA denied a Swedish magazine's claim that the furniture maker's founder, Ingvar Kamprad, is the world's richest man, with a $53 billion treasure chest. The firm swatted away the accolade, pointing out that the famously frugal 77-year-old no longer owned the company. Still, he should be grateful he has the assembly instructions...