SHARE
COPY LINK

INGVAR KAMPRAD

Ikea denies reports of founder’s retirement

Swedish furniture giant Ikea denied Monday that its 86-year-old founder Ingvar Kamprad had formally handed over the running of the business to his three sons, as a company official told a Swedish daily.

Ikea denies reports of founder's retirement

“Ingvar will no longer be there to give his point of view, give advice or support,” Göran Grosskopf, chairman of Ingka Holding, the Dutch parent company that comprises all of the family-owned Ikea businesses, told the daily Expressen.

But Grosskopf later denied the report.

“With regard to the media reports about Ingvar Kamprad, I want to underline that we still have the pleasure of having him as Senior Advisor to the Supervisory Board for Ingka Holding BV,” he said in a written statement to the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper.

Expressen also based its report on an interview with Kamprad’s three sons Peter, Jonas and Mathias Kamprad in an internal Ikea newsletter.

But the company denied that Kamprad had passed the torch, stressing that he was still acting as an advisor, and said the interview with his sons did not imply that there had been any changes.

“There has been no news,” Ikea spokeswoman Ylva Magnusson told AFP.

As an unlisted company with a complex ownership structure, gaining insight into the inner workings of Ikea is difficult.

The sons have maintained a low profile over the years as they slowly moved up through the company, and have rarely spoken out in the media.

Kamprad meanwhile indicated he was still involved in daily operations, commenting on a management change in a statement issued later in the day.

Ikea announced that Peter Agnefjäll, 41 and currently the head of Ikea Sweden, would take over as managing director for the Ikea Group, placed under Ingka Holding in the corporate structure. He will replace Mikael Ohlsson, 55, on September 1, 2013.

“I want to thank Mikael for all his hard work and for having put his heart and soul into Ikea for more than 34 years, especially as managing director in recent years,” Ingvar Kamprad said.

In June, speculation that Ingvar Kamprad was preparing his departure from the unlisted group mounted when his three sons posed for a picture for Swedish financial daily Dagens Industri and a company spokesman detailed their individual responsibilities.

Peter, “who turns 48 this year”, was described as “the economist” who has taken control over the conglomerate Ikano, the Luxembourg-based company that runs the family’s financial, property, insurance, capital management and retail holdings.

Jonas, “who will be 46 this year”, is “the creative designer and product developer” who sits on the board of Ingka Holding, Dagens Industri said.

And Mathias, “who turns 43 this year”, is described as “the businessman and initiative-taker in the troika” who focuses on Inter Ikea Holding, which owns the Ikea concept and brand.

The Swiss magazine Bilan in June named Ingvar Kamprad Europe’s richest man, with an estimated fortune of $37.5 billion including the holdings in the family-owned foundation.

Ingvar Kamprad founded Ikea in 1943 in his hometown of Älmhult in southern

Sweden.

He is known for being relentlessly frugal and has been harshly criticized for his ties to the Nazi youth movement during World War II, which he later described as the “folly of youth” and “greatest mistake of my life”.

AFP/The Local

Follow The Local on Twitter

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

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.

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

SHOW COMMENTS