Posted on 05/18/2011 10:21:38 AM PDT by WesternCulture
Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of Swedish furnishings giant IKEA, has promised more transparency over the firm's business affairs, saying that it has nothing to hide after a slew of allegations in recent years.
"We have nothing to hide. There is no pretension to hide anything. We are going to go through everything and show that we follow each country's laws and regulations," Ingvar Kamprad, the 85-year-old billionaire who founded IKEA in 1943, told the Expressen daily.
"We will make ourselves more transparent," he said.
Kamprad's comments came a few months after a documentary aired on Swedish public television, SVT, alleged the secretive foundation that controls the company was set up to avoid taxes.
Expressen reported that the Kamprad family decided Monday at a meeting where the allegations against IKEA were discussed to vow complete transparency.
Kamprad pointed out however that there was a lot of "cleaning up" to take care of, "so I'm not sure when we will be done. Maybe at the end of the year or at the beginning of next year."
Shortly before the SVT documentary aired in January, Kamprad, who had long claimed he no longer controlled the furniture giant, admitted he still held the reins through the previously secret Intergo Foundation.
The flat-pack furniture empire famous for its big blue box warehouses has also been tangled in a bribery scandal in Russia which forced the firing of two top executives at the start of 2010.
IKEA is an unlisted, family-owned company that traditionally does not release regular earnings reports, but has in recent years published occasional figures showing earnings and sales.
In such a report in January this year, it posted a significant hike in net profit in 2010 as sales rose, especially in China, Russia and Portugal.
The group, which at the end of last year counted 127,000 employees, said Europe accounted for 79 percent of sales, with North America making up 15 percent and the Asia-Australia region the rest.
Kamprad, who started IKEA as a teenager, has lived in Switzerland since 1976 to avoid Sweden's steep wealth taxes.
Like a friend of mine once said: “- What do I care about other people’s money?”
Transparency in the furniture business. Hmmmm...at the sorority houses...if they don’t close the curtains...sorry, drifted off there again.
How can he be transparent when he has his stock all tied up in a “charity” foundation that includes links to strange Luxemburg companies and bank accounts? His whole strategy seems to be to evade taxes by use of phony fronts.
It seems to me that I’ve heard a pledge of “transparency” somewhere else, which turned out to be an out and out lie.
Was at IKEA this weekend. Got a couch, tables and a rug. Then ate some Köttbullar.
Stopped at the Volvo store as well and bought a C30 on Saturday.
Reminded me of the days we spent living at the corner of Storgatan and Götabergsgatan.
Hope to get a place in Lundbyvassen or Lindholmen this year or next.
Summer in Sweden and winter in Florida. What more could one ask for?
/sarcasm off
“Hope to get a place in Lundbyvassen”
- Lundbyvassen?
Isn’t that where we dump sh*t?
If you plan on moving to GBG, please give a place like this a fair chance:
http://www.skeppsholmen.se/goteborg/vastkusten?guid=3T9O0LB4GK1TIT04
(Don’t forget clicking “bilder” meaning pictures..)
Välkommen till Göteborg!
“They are successful capitalists.”
- It’s all too true.
Please Mr Obama Bananarama Man, Why don’t you do somethin’!
Quick.
Isn’t it just to the east of Hotel Elva? Toward the Lipstick building. The ferry makes its first stop there when you get on at Nordstand.
Anyway, right by Hotel Elva on the water is fine by me.
I’ll talk to my friend Per Kjeillen and find out about the sh*t drop!!!
Good for him. Obviously he didn't build a retail empire by being an idiot.
And I just love my new IKEA ice bear fur car seat covers 'Knut' (joking).
- You're probably right.
It's just that I can't stand Hisingen (the island northern part of Gothenburg).
Hising Island is an okay place to work, but I simply can't stand the mere thought of living, eating and sleeping there.
I've had “romances” with several extremely beautiful girls living there but dumped them for that very reason.
It's like the New Jersey of Sweden.
Hisingen:
I met a girl named Åsa at The Palace that was an absolutely beautiful girl. The kind of girl Sweden is noted for. She lived on Hisingen.
She worked in Frolunda at an auto parts supplier to Volvo. We used to go to Tva Kan Ten Restaurang and a blues club next to Burger King in Jarn Torget all the time.
A lot of fun but she lacked a little brain power.
That didn’t matter too much to me at the time!
“A lot of fun but she lacked a little brain power.”
- When females behave like that, take it as a compliment as long as it don’t happen too often..
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