Enlarge image
Bike shop in Ludwigslust (Mecklenburg-West Pomerania) in April 2020: 100 percent of dealers are affected by bottlenecks
Photo:
Jens Büttner / dpa
Retailers in Germany fear that the delivery problems will drag on for another year.
In a survey conducted by the Ifo Institute in June, 75.7 percent of the companies surveyed in the industry stated that not all the goods ordered could be delivered.
That was a slight decline from May, when 80.1 percent of retailers were still complaining about delivery bottlenecks.
"This year, too, there will be gaps in the shelves at Christmas," said Klaus Wohlrabe, head of the Ifo surveys.
»The delivery problems have become an ongoing problem for retailers.«
According to the survey, bicycle dealers are most affected by the lack of deliveries - 100 percent of the companies surveyed reported this.
The figure was 98.1 percent for electrical household appliances and 90.3 percent in the car trade.
Almost 90 percent of retailers of consumer electronics and furniture also complained about delivery problems.
In contrast, the situation in clothing is relatively relaxed, at 54.4 percent.
Grocery retailers are doing much better, almost 100 percent of whom reported missing deliveries in May, compared to around 77 percent in June.
The bicycle dealers also expected the longest duration of the delivery problems at 18 months.
Car dealers expect more than a year, similar to the furniture trade.
Supermarkets (8.2 months) and the clothing industry (nine months) expect that the gaps on their shelves will fill up a little faster.
While the delivery problems in retail are continuing, the industry is drawing some hope again: In May, the industry recorded a slight increase in incoming orders of 0.1 percent compared to April, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office.
The value of new orders had previously declined steadily since February, also as a result of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.
fdi