There is frustration among Ikea customers.
More and more often they stand in front of empty shelves - and that should go on for longer.
Munich - The Swedish furniture giant Ikea, like many other corporations, 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, Ikea announced on Thursday (October 14).
Ikea expects delivery problems for a long time to come even in 2022
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 exceed those before the crisis, which amounted to 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.
Ikea is seeing strong online growth
Despite the "difficult financial year", Ikea was able to recover from the corona shock.
The great online growth was also instrumental in this.
The online share has risen from 18 percent to 30 percent over the course of the year.
"I am really proud of the past year," said Ingka boss Jesper Brodin according to the announcement.
They will continue to invest in innovation, expansion, accessibility and sustainability.
The Ingka Group is by far the largest operator of Ikea furniture stores worldwide, but not the only one.
There are a total of twelve franchisees.
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.
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.
(AFP / dpa / ph)
