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SWITZERLAND

Ikea’s Kamprad still Switzerland’s richest

Ingvar Kamprad, founder of Swedish furniture giant Ikea, has retained his place atop Switzerland's rich list, with his net worth estimated at up to 39 billion Swiss francs ($42 billion), Swiss magazine Bilan said Friday.

Published: 30 November 2012 17:32 CET
Ikea's Kamprad still Switzerland's richest

In its annual review of the country’s 300 wealthiest residents, Bilan estimated that Kamprad’s fortune rose by around 1.0 billion Swiss francs in 2012.

The 86-year-old Swede, who was also listed as the fifth wealthiest person on the planet, did not however keep pace with the 9.0-percent average boost seen by Switzerland’s 137 billionaires, the magazine said, estimating their total worth at more than 438 billion Swiss francs.

In October, Kamprad scoffed at the notion he might retire following reports in the Swedish media in September that he planned on passing the baton to his three sons Peter, Jonas and Mathias.

“Oh, I have so much work to do and no time to die,” he told Swiss business magazine Bilanz in October.

Despite Bilan’s estimates of Kamprad’s sizeable fortune, the head of the flat pack furniture giant was only estimated to have a fortune of mere $3 billion by Forbes magazine after lawyers showed that Ikea is owned by a foundation in tax haven Lichtenstein, which Kamprad created and now heads.

The foundation receives royalties tax free on all sales that every Ikea store must pay to the parent company for the right to use the concept.

The US business magazine ranked Kamprad 377th among the world’s richest people in a March 2012, down from 162 the year before, and 11th place in 2010.

Kamprad, who founded Ikea in 1943 in his home town of Älmhult in southern Sweden, has faced harsh criticism in the past for his ties to the Nazi youth movement during World War II.

He later described the period as the “folly of youth” and “the greatest mistake of my life.”

However, the company recently admitted, however, that East German political prisoners were used in the Swedish furniture giant’s factories in the 1970s and 1980s.

AFP/The Local

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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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