Ikea: 75 years of Ingvar Kamprad's Swedish modernism
From a mail-order sales business to locations in 51 countries. A look back at the history of the Swedish furniture giant and its legendary founder.
The man behind the legend
Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad has passed away at 91. A businessman since childhood, Kamprad founded Ikea as a mail-order sales business in 1943, when he was only 17. It wasn't until 1948 that the company began selling furniture. At his death, Kamprad was one of the richest men in the world.
Kamprad's first profits
An exhibit from Sweden's Ikea museum, which opened in 2016, shows the box used by Kamprad to store earnings from one of his first businesses — selling fish to nearby farmers on his mother's bike. The museum is located at the site of the very first Ikea store in Almhult, Sweden.
The first furniture superstore
In 1953, Kamprad opened the first Ikea store in his hometown of Almhult. As interest and profits grew, the company expanded throughout Scandinavia, arriving in Norway in 1963 and Denmark in 1969.
Do it yourself
Ikea is known for its bare-bones flat packaging, with customers usually required to assemble furniture themselves. This design helps keep costs down and allows for massive amounts of stock to be available in Ikea stores. On the left is the frame of a Poäng armchair. Ikea has produced 30 million of these chairs since they were introduced in 1978.
Children welcome
Seen here is an Ikea collection from the 1970s. Pine was, as it is now, a mainstay of Ikea style — as well as bright colors and kid-friendly design. Today, German represents the furniture giant's biggest market with 53 stores. For comparison, the entire United States has 45.
World famous
Over the decades, Ikea has expanded to 51 countries, and has plans to build stores in 10 more in the next few years. The biggest Ikea in the world is in Gwangmyeong, South Korea and is 57,100 square meters (614,619 sq ft) in size. Seen above is the opening of the Ikea in Moscow in March 2000, an event that drew a crowd of 30,000 people.
Under fire
Ikea has come under fire numerous times — for its symbolic association with post-World War II consumer culture (famously lampooned in the book and film 'Fight Club'), and for its business practices, such as being registered as a charity. In 2015, Italian Ikea employees demonstrated outside the Swedish embassy in Rome over low wages.
Charitable work
Over the years, Ikea has been involved in a number of philanthropic causes, and regularly donates large sums to UNICEF and Save the Children. Here, refugees in Iraq are housed in Ikea 'Better Shelter' housing.
Unavoidable Ikea
Some Ikea products are so ubiquitous they are easily recognizable by name, such as the Billy bookcase. In 2009, Ikea said that it had sold 41 million Billy shelves since 1979, making it the most popular piece of furniture in the world.