IKEA retailer Ingka Group cuts 800 office positions
Ingka Group will cut 800 office roles to streamline its structure and lower costs. The IKEA retailer aims to boost agility while opening new stores this year.
The Ingka Group, the primary owner and operator of most IKEA stores globally, announced on Thursday its intention to reduce its office-based workforce by approximately 800 positions. This move is part of a broader effort to streamline the organization and sharpen its focus on core retail operations, a strategy initially signaled in December. The redundancy process is currently in its early stages, with the company indicating that the cuts will primarily affect roles within Group Functions. These positions are largely located in Sweden and at the corporate headquarters in the Netherlands. While the specific roles impacted have not yet been detailed, the group currently employs roughly 166,000 people worldwide across its three main divisions: IKEA Retail, Ingka Centres, and Ingka Investments. Ingka CEO Juvencio Maeztu explained that a leaner corporate structure is intended to facilitate quicker decision-making and empower front-line operations. He noted that reducing complexity is essential in the current retail climate. > The world we live in, both in the world and in the retail industry, requires more speed and more agility than ever before. Maeztu further elaborated on the strategic shift toward operational efficiency. > So we need to reduce the complexity. > We are giving more focus to the front line. > And by doing that, you can really take the right decisions and faster decisions. The organizational changes come after two years of declining sales, a trend the company attributes to its deliberate strategy of lowering prices to capture market share and boost volume. Despite the reduction in office staff, Ingka remains committed to physical expansion. The company plans to open new stores this year using a more efficient, faster-to-open format, a move expected to create approximately 500 new roles. Addressing broader economic concerns, Maeztu indicated that while geopolitical instability and rising oil prices do not pose immediate threats to the group, they underscore the necessity for IKEA to remain agile in the face of potential disruptions.
