Ingvar was born in rural Sweden and by the age of five, was selling matchbooks, and by the age of ten, was selling pens, pencils, and Christmas tree decorations. When he turned 17, he had a decent amount of money from his sales and because he was doing well in school, his father rewarded him with money.
He founded IKEA that year using those savings and started out very small, selling things such as pens, wallets, watches and picture frames. In 1945, he started selling supplies out of a milk truck, and two years after, he started selling furniture. To reach big cities, Ingvar created IKEA’s iconic catalog that showed what supplies he was selling. At first, customers were skeptical about the quality because of how low the pricing was for the goods.
In 1955, manufacturers boycotted IKEA because of its low prices. Ingvar responded to this boycott by bringing in production and design in-house. Through doing this, he developed the flatpack concept and sold his products in-store. His main goal was to produce good quality furniture for an affordable price, and once that was communicated to customers, his business started expanding worldwide. Stores opened in Norway in 1963 and in Denmark in 1969. From there, it expanded to numerous locations in Europe, as well as Japan, Australia, the U.S, and Canada.
As of 2020, there are 433 stores in 38 countries. As for its founder, Ingvar Kumprad, he grew up humble and was humble for all of his life, despite his enormous wealth. He died in 2018 at the age of 91.
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It is amazing how Ingvar would not let his humility be corrupted by greediness or success. When he was boycotted because he wanted to keep his prices low, he decided to make the products himself and became even more successful because of it.