Ikea Founder Steps Back

Ingvar Kamprad, who founded Ikea (Delft, The Netherlands) in 1943 when he was 17, is leaving the board of directors of Inter Ikea Group, one of the key components in the privately held company’s complicated organizational apparatus.

His youngest son, Mathias, will take over as chairman.

Kamprad stepped down as ceo in 1986, but remained a strong controlling force in the growing international business. He chairs the Dutch-registered Stiching INGKA Foundation, which controls Ikea Group, the owner of 302 of the 343 Ikea stores worldwide. He is also on the board of family-controlled Interogo Foundation in Liechtenstein, which in turn owns Inter Ikea Group.

“I see this as a good time for me to leave the board of Inter Ikea Group,” he said. The Group owns the Ikea brand and collects 3 percent of Ikea stores’ sales worldwide each year, which have now exceeded $36 billion. “By that we are also taking another step in the generation shift that has been ongoing for some years.”

Photography: JuliusKielaitis / Shutterstock.com