IKEA making it one of the largest users of wood in the retail sector. Most of IKEA's stores and factories were previously owned by INGKA, a holding company controlled by the Stichting INGKA Foundation, one of the 40 wealthiest foundations in the world. Ingvar Kamprad founded IKEA in 1943 as a mostly mail-order sales business. It began to sell furniture five years later. The first Möbel-IKÉA store was opened in Älmhult, Småland, in 1958 (Möbel means "furniture" in Swedish). The first stores outside Sweden were opened in Norway (1963) and Denmark (1969). The stores spread to other parts of Europe in
Ingvar Lars Helle Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration as a siviløkonom. He also took pedagogy courses, and worked as a school teacher and principal. From 1981 to 1982 he worked in the oil drilling company Loffland Brothers North Sea Inc. From 1982 to 1997 he worked in Statoil, except for the years 1988 to 1991 when he worked in Norpipe. In 1992 he took the cand.jur. degree at the University of Oslo. Born in Larvik, he was the brother of Knut Helle. Ingvar Lars Helle Ingvar Lars Helle (12 April 1933 – 14 May 2003) was a Norwegian politician for the