Billionaire IKEA founder revels in frugal lifestyle

Published on Monday 27 March 2006 01:53

INGVAR Kamprad, the founder of IKEA and the fourth richest man in the world, drives a 15-year-old car and flies economy class, in part to inspire his 90,000 employees worldwide to see the virtue of frugality.

The billionaire Swede, who is 80 on Thursday, explained his habits during a rare television interview in Switzerland, his adoptive home for nearly 30 years.

His fortune was estimated at 16 billion by Forbes magazine - trailing only the Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, the American investor Warren Buffett and the Mexican industrialist Carlos Slim. "People say I am cheap and I don't mind if they do. I am proud to follow the rules of our company," Mr Kamprad said.

Asked to confirm that he drove an old Volvo, he said: "She is nearly new, just 15 years old, or something like that." Asked jokingly if IKEA employees were told to write on both sides of the paper, he said: "Why not? If there is such a thing as good leadership, it is to give a good example. I have to do so for all the IKEA employees. IKEA is the world's biggest furniture retailer, with 202 stores in 32 countries. Known for its inexpensive, self-assembly furniture, the family-owned business claims its hefty catalogue is the most widely read publication after the Bible.

After flirting with neo-Nazism following the Second World War - for which he has apologised - the Swede set up a shop in his garden shed, selling watches, pens and Christmas cards. "I bought seeds for the garden and had great success with it, going around to all the houses in my village. After that year, I could buy myself my first bicycle," Mr Kamprad recalled.

When Sweden's Social Democrat government launched the "Million Homes Project" in the 1950s, he saw an opportunity to get into the furniture business.

He stumbled upon the "flat-pack" idea in 1956 when an employee took the legs off a table to fit it into a customer's car.

On turning 80, Mr Kamprad said: "I have lots of things to do. I don't have time for dying."