Ikea "adapts to changing customer", cuts 7,500 jobs

Swedish furniture chain Ikea plans to cut 7,500 jobs as part of its transformation plan, which should help the retailer cope with “changing customer behaviour”. On the other hand, the chain will create 11,500 jobs in emerging markets.

Focus on city centre stores and e-commerce

Ikea wants to simplify its organisational structure to focus more on the consumer: a number of administrative functions will disappear at the head offices in no fewer than thirty countries. This also applies to the headquarters in Zaventem (Belgium) and Amsterdam (the Netherlands), where 240 people will lose their jobs.

At the same time, there will be 11,500 new jobs as Ikea wants to invest further in new ‘touch points’ (mainly smaller city shops), in its fulfilment network and in the development of its digital services. The retailer announced earlier this year that expansion would mainly take place in emerging markets in the near future, while saturated markets would face a decrease in which large stores would be reduced in size to be partly used as distribution hubs for e-commerce.

CEO Jesper Brodin stated that his company is still growing rapidly, but due to changes in customer behaviour the retailer also has to change its ways. Still, he maintains that the job cuts will have no repercussions for the stores.