Furniture
Blokker Holding has reported a 344 million euro loss for the past fiscal year, largely because of high one-time restructuring costs, according to the group. The implementation of its new strategy is on schedule.
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Ikea will be cutting 150 jobs, some of them in the Belgian and Dutch branches as well. The plan is part of a major reorganisation effort to help prepare the furniture giant for the growing competition of large e-commerce players.
Dutch mattresses group Beter Bed Holding saw its first quarter turnover drop 4 % compared to last year. Turnover went down in Germany, where a poison scandal forced results down by 12 %, but Switzerland and Spain performed even worse.
Danish Jysk will open another eleven stores in Belgium in 2018, bringing its total to seventeen. The Danish counterpart to Ikea aims to have about 100 stores in Belgium at some point.
Carpetright, caught in a downward spiral in the past year, will shut down a fifth of its stores in Great Britain in order to remain afloat. 300 people will subsequently lose their job.
Ikea is fully focused on becoming a global presence in urban centers. The furniture chain is currently looking for locations in Paris, Copenhagen, London and Southeast Asia to attract broader audiences with smaller stores.
In the past six years, Ikea unlawfully deducted about one billion euro from its taxes according to the European Commission’s preliminary findings. The EC launched an investigation into the Swedish company’s deal with the Dutch treasury.
British DIY chain Kingfisher’s net profit dropped more than 20 % in the past fiscal year because of a restructuring plan in its native land and weak French sales.
Online furniture shop Made.com has attracted 45 million euro in a new investment round, which will be used to strengthen its position in current markets and to expand to new European markets.
In the next few years, Ikea aims to spend billions to “be as close as possible to the consumer” and to stay ahead of pure players like Amazon, according to new Chief Financial Officer Juvencio Maeztu.
Maisons du Monde has broken through the 1 billion euro barrier in 2017. The French furniture chain continues its sturdy growth, also in the United Kingdom, but still adjusted its full-year forecast downward.
Ikea, in collaboration with Accenture, presented its store formula of the future at the Mobile World Congress. It was remarkable to see that it is a small inner-city store with (obviously) a lot of technology.
On 6 February, Abel Slippens stepped down as chairman and member of the Board of Commissioners for Blokker Holding. Michiel Witteveen, who has plenty of retail experience, has succeeded him.
Swedish Ikea will now also manufacture vegan products. The first item will be the Veggie Dog, a vegan version of the hot dog. Local customers will have to wait until the summer to buy one here as well.
Fashion
Willem Stox, bed specialist Auping’s director for Belgium and Luxembourg, will leave the company on 16 February and become lingerie group Van de Velde’s head of Belgium, Luxembourg and Scandinavia.
Danish Lars Larsen Group, which owns furniture chain Jysk, has reached record results in its fiscal year 2016/2017: the group generated a 4 billion euro (30 billion Danish krona) turnover and its EBITDA was 3.4 billion Danish krona (450 million euro).
