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 Ingvar Yngvar Harra (or Ingvar) Proto-Norse *"Ingu-Hariz" (d. early 7th century) was the son of Östen and reclaimed the Swedish throne for the House of Yngling after the Swedes had rebelled against Sölvi. Snorri Sturluson relates in his "Ynglinga saga" that King Ingvar, Östen's son, was a great warrior who often spent time patrolling the shores of his kingdom fighting Danes and Estonian vikings ("Víkingr frá Esthland"). King Ingvar finally came to a peace agreement with the Danes and could take care of the Estonian vikings. He consequently started pillaging in Estonia in retribution, and one summer he arrived at