Ingvar Kamprad, Ikea's billionaire founder, dies at 91

Stockholm

INGVAR Kamprad, whose boyhood business of selling pencils and seeds from his bicycle in Sweden eventually grew into the Ikea furniture chain, has died. He was 91.

"The founder of Ikea and Ikano, and one of the greatest entrepreneurs of the 20th Century, Ingvar Kamprad, has peacefully passed away at his home in Smaland, Sweden, on Jan 27," Ikea said in an emailed statement on Sunday. He was "surrounded by his loved ones", and died "following a short illness."