4th Richest Man in World drives what? 15 year old Volvo! Hoorah!

Quote: "She is nearly new, just 15 years old, or something like that."
-- Ingvar Kamprad

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsa...61_RTRUKOC_0_US-SWISS-IKEA-KAMPRAD.xml&rpc=23

GENEVA (Reuters) - IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad, ranked 4th richest man
in the world, drives a 15-year-old car and always flies economy class,
in part to inspire his 90,000 employees worldwide to see the virtue of
frugality.

The billionaire Swede, who turns 80 on March 30, explained his
legendary habits during a rare television interview in Switzerland, his
adoptive home for nearly 30 years.

His fortune was recently estimated at $28 billion by Forbes magazine --
trailing only Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, U.S. investor Warren
Buffett and Mexican industrialist Carlos Slim.

"People say I am cheap and I don't mind if they do. But I am very proud
to follow the rules of our company," Kamprad told French-language Swiss
Broadcasting Corporation.

Asked to confirm he drove an old Volvo, he said: "She is nearly new,
just 15 years old, or something like that."

Interviewer Darius Rochebin teased that Ikea employees were always told
to write on both sides of the paper.

"Why not? If there is such a thing as good leadership, it is to give a
good example. I have to do so for all the Ikea employees," Kamprad
retorted.

"Everything we earn we need as a reserve. We have to still develop the
IKEA group. We need many billions of Swiss francs (dollars) to take on
China or Russia," he added.

Ikea is the world's biggest furniture retailer, with 202 stores in 32
countries.

Known for its inexpensive self-assembly furniture, the family-owned
business claims its hefty catalog is the most widely read publication
after the Bible.

After flirting with neo-Nazism after World War Two -- for which he has
apologized -- the small-town Swede set up shop in his garden shed,
selling watches, pens and Christmas cards.

"I bought seeds for the garden and had great success with it, going
around to all the houses in my village. After that year I could buy
myself my first bicycle," Kamprad recalled.

When Sweden's Social Democrat government launched the "Million Homes
Project" in the 1950s, he saw an opportunity and got into the furniture
business.

He stumbled upon the "flat-pack" idea in 1956 when an employee took the
legs off a table to fit it into a customer's car. It saves a fortune in
transport, storage and sales space.

"Our idea is to serve everybody, including people with little money. We
have to keep costs down," he said.

His home in the Swiss village of Epalinges near Lausanne above scenic
Lake Geneva is mainly decorated with Ikea furniture, apart from a few
family pieces.

In keeping with Swedish tradition, Kamprad said he prepares and brings
glogg, or hot wine, to "good neighbors" at Christmas along with his
three sons.

Last week he made a donation of 500,000 swiss francs ($379,900) to the
Lausanne cantonal art school, where his son studied.

"I'm not afraid of turning 80 and I have lots of things to do. I don't
have time for dying," Kamprad said.

($1=1.316 Swiss Franc)

 

I saw that story this am...great plug for older
volvos...heck, his is just gettin' broken in....

cheers......richard / colorado
1993 940t - 250,000 miles....
2001 s80t6 - 145,000 miles...

owned 4 others in the past years.....