The gross profit of Inter IKEA, which owns the Swedish furniture brand IKEA, fell by 16 percent to 1.71 billion euros (about 44 billion CZK) in the past financial year. Higher transport and raw material costs outweighed sales growth, the company said. She added that she would increase prices due to persistent problems in the supply chain.
Inter IKEA franchises IKEA stores and is responsible for supplying them, from which most of its profits come.
The company announced last month that the total sales of the IKEA brand increased by six percent in the financial year to 31 August to a record 41.9 billion euros (almost 1.1 trillion CZK). The growth in sales was due, among other things, to the sharp rise in sales via the Internet.
“It is difficult to supply IKEA stores and warehouses. Outages in the supply chain have led to a significant decline in product availability, from which we have yet to recover. We expect this to continue for much of this financial year,” the company said today.
In an interview with Reuters, Martin van Dam, the company’s financial director, pointed out that due to the lack of raw materials and the growth of their prices, as well as due to logistical problems, it will be difficult to achieve growth in this financial year.
“Of course we plan to grow, but it will mean very hard work in our supply chain and with our suppliers,” he said. He also said that owners of IKEA stores will have some freedom in the extent to which they decide to pass on price increases to customers.
Most IKEA stores are owned by the Ingka Group. Last month, it announced that sales in its stores increased by six percent to 37.4 billion euros in the past financial year.
IKEA also operates in the Czech Republic, where the furniture network market dominates. It operates four department stores in the Czech Republic, two in Prague, another in Brno and Ostrava.
– .
