This week the Family Business Office, for its 33^rd edition of Focus On , features the family business synonymous with the world acclaimed brand IKEA and we meet the Kamprads , more specifically the eldest second generation heir Peter Kamprad.

Ikea is the largest furniture retailer in the world, but most of its customers probably couldn’t name its founder. Ingvar Kamprad, the company’s reclusive and frugal founder who died in January 2018 at age 91, started Ikea in 1943 when he was just 17 years old. Over the years, he built it into a multibillion-dollar global company that now has 434 stores and employs more than 208,000 people worldwide.

The three Kamprad brothers and sons of Ingvar own Ikano Group, a group of companies involved in areas including real estate, banking, insurance, and retail that was once part of Ikea but later became an independent company. Peter Kamprad is the chairman of the board and Jonas and Mathias are also board members.

Peter Kamprad is the eldest son of Ingvar Kamprad and Margaretha Stennert and he grew up in Denmark and Switzerland and trained as an economist at a university in Switzerland. He has worked in the Ikea sphere , including as CFO at Ikea in Belgium and a few years in Poland . He is chairman of the board of Ikea, which is owned by all three brothers via Icaf Antillen NV.

Peter and his brothers own Ikano Group, which was created to manage Ikea’s real estate and financial service businesses.Today Ikano Group is a $9.1 billion company with interests in banking, real estate and Asian shopping centers.

Peter, the eldest brother, ran Ikea’s Belgian operations for 12 years; he now chairs the Ikano Group.

Not all was rosy in the Kamprad family however as Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad was forced to hand over billions of dollars to his sons following a bitter family feud, according to a book on the global furniture giant.

The revelation appeared in the book “Ikea on the Road to the Future”, co-authored by former Ikea executive Lennart Dahlgren, journalist Stellan Bjoerk and economist Karl von Schulzenheim.

The authors claim that Kamprad—who founded the company in 1943—held back a percentage of sales based on intellectual property rights for himself, triggering a long drawn-out battle with his three sons.

According to the book, Peter, Jonas and Mathias Kamprad later contested the decision, going as far as to hire lawyers in the US to fight their case that the money should stay in the family.

 

( All factual and statistical information presented in this blog has been obtained from an extract of articles found on kochind.com and Wikipedia biographies.com ) Follow us on our Facebook page and Family Business Office website at www.familybusiness.org.mt

The Family Business Office will on a frequent basis be offering insights into World Family Business Leaders through our ‘Focus On’ features. Follow us on our Facebook page and the Family Business Office website at www.familybusiness.org.mt

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