STOCKHOLM: Ingvar Kamprad, the farmer’s son turned multi-billionaire who founded the Ikea empire that revolutionised furnishing, has died aged 91, the firm said on Sunday.

Kamprad “passed away peacefully surrounded by his loved ones” at his home in the southern Swedish region of Smaland on Saturday “following a brief illness”, Ikea said in a statement. He leaves behind a legacy of affordable interior design for households around the world, through Ikea’s flat-pack furniture which customers can assemble themselves.

Kamprad’s close friend Bertil Torekull told the Swedish daily Aftonbladet that the industrialist died from pneumonia which he contracted after a visit abroad, aggravated by “the frailty of old age”.

Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said Kamprad “made home furnishing available for many people, not just the few” while King Carl XVI Gustaf added he was a “true entrepeneur” who “brought Sweden out to the world”.

Born in 1926 to a farming family in Smaland, Kamprad, whose fortune in 2017 was estimated at 37.3 billion euros ($46 billion) according to the Swiss economic magazine Bilan, founded the company at the age of 17.

“He came from nowhere, but with help from his inner force, his ability and his will, he created something I think everyone is proud of when seeing Ikea out in the world,” Swedish banker and industrialist Jacob Wallenberg told financial daily Dagens Industri. But Kamprad’s success has been marked by controversy.

In 1973 he fled Sweden’s higher tax structure for Denmark before seeking even lower taxes in Switzerland.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2018