Together with engineer Paul Toll, 28-year-old Ivan Kreuger founds the construction firm Kreuger & Toll, specializing in construction with reinforced concrete, a new invention at the time. In short due they become one of Sweden’s leading firms. Among their most notable projects are the Stockholm Olympic Stadium, the NK department store, and Myrsteds Matthörna at Kungsgatan in Stockholm.
1917 sees the founding of Svenska Tändsticks Aktiebolaget (STAB), a merger of the two remaining match manufacturing corporations: AB Förenade Svenska Tändsticksfabriker and AB Jönköping - Vulcan Tändsticksaktiebolag. With Ivar Kreuger at the helm as director, STAB becomes the world’s largest manufacturer of matches. The biggest shareholder in STAB is Kreuger & Toll.
Shortly following this, Kreuger goes on to acquire match manufacturing plants throughout all of Europe, funding these acquisitions with loans.
In the spring of 1928, STAB inaugurates its new headquarters at Västra Trädgårdsgatan in Stockholm. The building is designed by architect Ivar Tengbom and Sweden’s most prominent artists contribute to the furniture design and decorations of what comes to be known as the “Matchstick Palace.” During the late 1920s there are repeated warning signs of an oncoming economic recession, but Kreuger continues to engage in large-scale projects. In the days following the Great Crash of Wall Street in New York, he issues Germany a large government loan and goes ahead with company acquisitions. Two years later, the recession deepens and banks start failing in Europe and the US. Swedish banks deny all new requests for loans from Kreuger. On the 12th of March, 1932, Ivar Kreuger is found shot in his Paris apartment. This event triggers the so-called Kreuger Crash and the empire becomes bankrupt.