STOCKHOLM — Ingvar Kamprad, creator of the Swedish furniture retailer Ikea, is taking another step back from his company, as the youngest of his three sons takes a key board role in a gradual handover of power.
Mr. Kamprad, 87, who founded the business in rural southern Sweden 70 years ago, stepped down in 1986 as chief executive of Ikea, which has become the world’s biggest furniture group, famous for its design and do-it-yourself assembly.
He will now leave the board of a key company within the business, Inter Ikea Group, and his youngest son, Mathias, will take over as its chairman.
“I see this as a good time for me to leave the board of Inter Ikea Group,” Mr. Kamprad said in a statement late Tuesday, referring to the company that owns the Ikea brand and which collects 3 percent of Ikea stores’ sales worldwide each year.
“By that we are also taking another step in the generation shift that has been ongoing for some years,” said Mr. Kamprad, a billionaire who has been resident in Switzerland since the 1970s.
The Kamprad family still controls the complex corporate structure that makes up the Ikea empire, and Mr. Kamprad himself keeps a tight grip behind the scenes.
Ingvar Kamprad chairs the Dutch-registered Stiching INGKA Foundation, which controls Ikea Group, the owner of 302 of the 343 IKEA stores worldwide. He is also on the board of family-controlled Interogo Foundation in Liechtenstein, which in turn owns Inter Ikea Group.
Mathias Kamprad is also an Interogo board member and has held various positions in the Kamprad-founded groups, but like all the Kamprads he has kept a low public profile.
Mathias’s two older brothers, Jonas and Peter, also have board roles within the groups.
Inter Ikea Group on Tuesday reported a 2012 net profit of 443 million euros, or $579 million, up sharply from 87 million euros a year earlier, mainly because of a one-time gain.
Soren Hansen, chief executive of Inter Ikea Group since September, said the business climate in Europe, where the bulk of Ikea stores are located, remained challenging, especially in southern Europe.
“What we feel happy about is that we can see that the Ikea concept has stood up relatively well,” he said. “We have in some markets become more relevant, meaning that in some markets we are gaining market share.”
Mr. Hansen said Inter Ikea Group’s other divisions, besides the franchise unit, improved results in 2012 although rapid expansion in the shopping mall and property development divisions still weighed on group results.
In China, which Ikea Group hopes will become one of its biggest markets, Inter Ikea Group is investing 1 billion euros in three shopping centers, the first of which is due to open early year.
Inter Ikea Group’s net revenue grew 7 percent to 2.6 billion euros in 2012, helped by new store openings and positive currency effects.
The one-time gain in the Inter Ikea Group results related to a 3.6 billion-euro capital injection from Interogo Foundation in connection with the transfer of the Ikea trademark from Interogo. Interogo also lent Inter Ikea Group 5.4 billion euros as part of the deal.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/06/business/global/ingvar-kamprad-to-leave-board-of-inter-ikea-group.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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