Thursday 14 October 2021

Pax and Billy Related
At Ikea, shelves are empty for months

Despite delivery issues, Ikea is happy with record sales. But it will take some time for customers in furniture stores to get full shelves again. The group is now announcing when that is likely to happen.

Like many other corporations, Swedish furniture giant Ikea also suffers from global distribution bottlenecks. Ikea said that during the fiscal year ending in late August, “we saw a significant reduction in the availability of products”. The company expects the delivery problem to happen “well into the 2022 fiscal year” – that is, by August 2022.

The cabinets of the PAX series and BILLY shelves are particularly affected at present. It was a “tough business year” due to distribution problems and closed stores, said holding company Inter Ikea. Nevertheless, sales grew six percent year-on-year to the equivalent of 41.9 billion euros. This means sales are also higher than before the crisis, which stood at 41.3 billion euros. The company did not mention profit; It is not bound to do so as it is not listed on the stock exchange.

At the end of August, Ikea had 225,000 employees worldwide, 8,000 more than in the previous fiscal year. 775 million customers visited the furniture store. “I am really proud of the past year,” said Ingka boss Jesper Brodin. They will continue to invest in innovation, expansion, access and sustainability. In the last 2020 fiscal year, Ikea had to close 75 percent of furniture stores due to the coronavirus pandemic and reported a drop in sales.