When Ingvar Kamprad died in January 2018 at age 91, he left behind an estimated $58.7 billion fortune and one of the world’s most recognisable retail empires. According to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, that made him the eighth-richest person on the planet at the time of his death.
Yet the IKEA founder, who built his business selling matchboxes and pencils from a bicycle in rural Sweden, spent his final decades doing something few billionaires bother with: driving a two-decade-old car, flying economy, and shopping at flea markets. As per multiple reports, Kamprad’s frugality wasn’t a quirky footnote to his life, rather it was the operating philosophy that built IKEA itself.
From a farm boy’s bicycle to a global flat-pack empire
Kamprad was just 17 when he founded IKEA in 1943, according to a report in Gulf News. The name itself was assembled from pieces of his own life—his initials, I.K., combined with E for Elmtaryd, the family farm where he grew up, and A for Agunnaryd, his home village.
Long before furniture, he had already been in business for years: as a boy, reports note he sold matchboxes to neighbours from his bicycle, later expanding into Christmas decorations, seeds, ballpoint pens and pencils.
What began as a mail-order business eventually turned into the flat-pack furniture format IKEA is known for worldwide, a model credited with revolutionising how furniture is designed, stored, shipped and assembled by customers themselves, per Fortune.
By the time of Kamprad’s death, IKEA had grown into the world’s largest furniture retailer and the company was reported to have around 403 stores in 49 countries, drawing roughly 936 million visitors and generating close to $47.6 billion in annual sales as per Fortune.
The outlet also reported the company operates 504 stores across 63 countries today, generating around $50 billion in annual sales and welcoming roughly 915 million visitors — a scale built on the frugal, no-frills model he established from the start.
The Volvo that outlasted a fortune
For roughly 20 years, Kamprad drove a 1993 Volvo 240 GL, according to CNBC. The car was reportedly worth around $22,000 when new, but had depreciated to just a few thousand dollars by the time he finally gave it up — and reports note he only did so after being persuaded that continuing to drive it was unsafe.
Earlier in his life, at age 80, Kamprad described the vehicle to Swiss broadcaster RTS as barely used, saying, “She is nearly new, just 15 years old, or something like that.”
The choice of car was never about affordability; it was about example-setting. As per Fortune, Kamprad once said, “I’m not interested in cars, and my goal is not to make people envious.” He reportedly also owned a Porsche for personal use, but the Volvo remained his public and everyday vehicle for years, reinforcing an image consistent with the company he built.
A frugality that extended to all facets of his life
Kamprad’s frugality extended well beyond his choice of car. Reports from CNBC and Fortune note that he consistently flew economy class and stayed in budget hotels while travelling for business, avoiding first-class tickets and private jets throughout his life. He told Swedish broadcaster TV4 in a 2016 documentary that his wardrobe largely came from secondhand markets, stating, “I don’t think I’m wearing anything that wasn’t bought at a flea market. I want to set a good example.”
Other habits attributed included recycling tea bags and pocketing small packets of salt and pepper from restaurants for personal use. He also reportedly got his haircuts in lower-cost countries while travelling rather than paying premium prices at home, per Yahoo Finance. In a 2006 Forbes interview cited widely, Kamprad summed up his approach simply: “I’m stingy and proud.”
These habits earned him unflattering nicknames in the Swedish and Swiss press—reports note he was dubbed ‘Uncle Scrooge’ and ‘The Miser’ in Epalinges, the Swiss village near Lausanne where he lived for decades before returning to Sweden.
Frugality as company doctrine
What set Kamprad apart from other famously thrifty billionaires, such as Warren Buffett, was how deliberately he tied his personal habits to company culture. In 1976, he wrote and distributed “The Testament of a Furniture Dealer,” a set of guidelines still followed by IKEA staff today, according to The New York Times. Employees were reportedly expected to write on both sides of paper and treat working at IKEA as a lifelong commitment rather than just a job.
Kamprad reportedly explained his reasoning directly: “How the hell can I ask people who work for me to travel cheaply if I travel in luxury?” This ethos, according to Fortune, became indistinguishable from the company’s broader operating philosophy—if the founder wouldn’t waste money, no employee was expected to either.
Kamprad’s legacy isn’t without controversy—reports have also noted past scrutiny over tax avoidance—but his frugal billionaire persona remains one of the most enduring parts of the IKEA story, a reminder that even a $58 billion fortune doesn’t have to change how a person lives.