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
Hawley Products Company the company invested heavily in research and innovation. During the 1930s, Jesse and his brother Don Hawley personally designed and patented products for the company. Dr. John C. Williams headed the Hawley Products research division in the 1940s and 1950s. Jesse Hawley managed the company until his death in 1946, at which time his brother and fellow executive, Don M. Hawley, became president of Hawley Products. Don Hawley was also an inventor of several of the products and methods of production at the company. By 1946, Hawley Products had expanded its product lines into plastics, sound diaphragms, molded fiber, and