The founder of global furniture empire Ikea, Ingvar Kamprad, has died aged 91.

Ikea Sverige, the chain's Swedish unit, said on Twitter that Mr Kamprad died on Saturday at his home in Smaland, Sweden.

"He will be much missed and warmly remembered by his family and IKEA staff all around the world," the company said.

Mr Kamprad's life story is entwined to the company he founded at age 17 on the family farm.

His work ethic, frugality and down-to-earth style remain at the core of its corporate identity today.

But his missteps in life, including early flirtations with Nazism, never rubbed off on Ikea, one of the world's most recognisable brands.

Mr Kamprad formed the company's name from his own initials and the first letters of the family farm, Elmtaryd, and the parish of Agunnaryd where it is located. It is in the heart of Smaland, a forested province whose people are known in Sweden for thrift and ingenuity.

Later in life, his name often appeared on lists of the world's richest men, but he never adopted the aura of a tycoon. He drove a modest Volvo and dressed unassumingly.

Mr Kampard had originally sold household products from a milk van before he started advertising in local newspapers.

He began publishing a makeshift mail-order catalogue and in 1950 added locally-made furniture to it.

Due to positive feedback he soon stopped selling other goods and focused excluisively on low-priced furniture.

Since then the Ikea concept - keeping prices low by letting the customers assemble the furniture themselves - offers affordable home furnishings at stores across the globe.

He moved to Switzerland in the late 1970s to avoid paying Swedish taxes, which at the time were the highest in the world. He decided to return home only after his wife Margaretha died in 2011.

In June 2013, Mr Kamprad announced that he would retire from the board which controls the Ikea brand as part of moves to hand responsibilities over to his son, Mathias.