Thursday October 14, 2021
Pax and Billy concerned
At Ikea, shelves remain empty for months
Despite the delivery bottlenecks, Ikea is happy about record sales. But it will be a while before customers in furniture stores will find full shelves again. The group is now announcing when this is likely to be the case.
Like many other corporations, the Swedish furniture giant Ikea is also suffering from global delivery bottlenecks. In the course of the fiscal year that ended at the end of August, “we noticed a significant decrease in the availability” of products, said Ikea. The company expects delivery problems “well into the 2022 financial year” – that is, until August 2022.
Cabinets from the Pax series and Billy shelves are currently particularly affected. Because of the delivery problems and closed shops it was a “difficult business year”, said the holding company Inter Ikea. Nevertheless, sales increased by six percent year-on-year to the equivalent of 41.9 billion euros. This means that sales also exceeded the pre-crisis level, which was 41.3 billion euros. The company did not mention the profit; it is not obliged to do so because 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 stores. “I am really proud of the past year,” said Ingka boss Jesper Brodin. They will continue to invest in innovation, expansion, accessibility and sustainability. In the previous 2020 financial year, Ikea had to close 75 percent of the furniture stores due to the corona pandemic and recorded a decline in sales.