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SWITZERLAND

Kamprad gives millions to house Swiss retirees

Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad is using some of the fortune he made helping people furnish their homes to help a small town in Switzerland build housing for elderly people.

Published: 27 June 2012 12:48 CEST
Kamprad gives millions to house Swiss retirees

Kamprad, now 86 years old, has decided to offer the French-speaking town of Epalinges in the canton of Lausanne 10 million francs ($10.4 million) to build special accommodation for retirees, Swiss newspaper 24 Heures reports.

The Swede, whose flatpack furniture empire has made him one of richest people in the world, is a well-known figure in the Swiss town where he has been resident for 36 years.

“Mr Kamprad insisted that the ground and walls should belong to the municipality and not to a foundation,” the town’s mayor, Maurice Mischler, told the newspaper.

The money will be used mainly to build 20 apartments, with a communal space for entertainment. Rents are to be set at an affordable rate for the new prospective tenants.

“The goal is to focus on people in need,” the mayor told online news site 24 Heures.

Some of the money will be used to fund a study examining the possibility of building fifty more such apartments.

Kamprad has requested that the apartments be constructed close to a school to facilitate communication across the generations, 24 Heures reported.

According to the newspaper, Kamprad’s apparent dislike for the town’s previous government explained why he waited until now to make his donation.

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WEATHER

Danish Ikea store shelters staff and customers overnight during snowstorm

Heavy snowfall left 31 people looking for a spare cushion at the Aalborg branch of Ikea on Wednesday as they were forced to spend the night at the store.

Published: 2 December 2021 09:11 CET
A file photo at Ikea in Aalborg, where 31 people stayed overnight during a snowstorm on December 1st 2021.
A file photo at Ikea in Aalborg, where 31 people stayed overnight during a snowstorm on December 1st 2021. Photo: Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix

Anyone who has found themselves wandering the mazy aisles of an Ikea might be able to empathise with the sense of being lost in the furniture store for a seemingly indefinite time.

Such a feeling was probably more real than usual for six customers and 25 staff members who were forced to spend the night at the furniture giant’s Aalborg branch after being snowed in.

Heavy snow in North Jutland brought traffic to a standstill and halted public transport in parts of the region on Wednesday afternoon, resulting in a snow-in at Ikea.

“This is certainly a new situation for us,” Ikea Aalborg store manager Peter Elmose told local media Nordjyske, which first reported the story.

“It’s certainly not how I thought my day would end when I drove to work this morning,” Elmose added.

The 31 people gathered in the store’s restaurant area and planned to see Christmas television and football to pass the evening, the store’s manager reported to Nordjyske.

“Our kitchen staff have made sure there is hot chocolate, risalamande, pastries, soft drinks, coffee and the odd beer for us in light of the occasion. So we’ll be able to keep warm,” he said.

“We couldn’t just send them outside and lock the door behind them at our 8pm closing time. Absolutely not. So of course they’ll be staying here,” he added.

The temporary guests were given lodging in different departments of the store in view of the Covid-19 situation, Nordjyske writes.

“For us , the most important thing was to take care of each other and that everyone feels safe,” Elmose said.

At least Ikea’s stranded customers and staff had somewhere comfortable to lay their heads.

The same can unlikely be said for around 300 passengers at the city’s airport who had to stay overnight at the terminal.

The airport was forced to stop flights from 2:30pm yesterday amid worsening weather, which also prevented buses from transferring passengers to hotels.

“We have around 300 people in the terminal right now and have been giving out blankets on the assumption they will be staying here tonight,” Aalborg Airport operations manager Kim Bermann told Nordjyske.

READ ALSO: Ikea reopens in Denmark after country’s worst retail month this century

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