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28th Jan 2018

The founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad, has died, aged 91

Conor Heneghan

Kamprad died quietly in his sleep at his home in Sweden, the company announced.

Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of the global furniture company IKEA, has died at the age of 91.

In a statement, IKEA confirmed that Kamprad died quietly in his sleep at his home in Småland in southern Sweden. The statement added that Kamprad will be greatly missed by his family and warmly remembered by IKEA employees worldwide.

Born in 1926, Kamprad founded IKEA (an acronym of his initials, IK, Elmtaryd, the farm where he grew up and Agunnaryd, his hometown) at the age of 17 and watched it go on to become the largest furniture retailer in the world.

IKEA currently has hundreds of stores in numerous countries around the world, including two in Ireland.

Regularly cited as one of the richest people in the world, Kamprad had been working as an advisor at IKEA since 1988, when he stepped down from a managerial role in the company.