Higher wood and metal prices hit Ikea profit
World’s biggest furniture brand is battling to adapt to the rise of online rivals such as Amazon and made.com
The owner of the Ikea furniture brand reported a drop in annual underlying profit on Monday, hit by higher wood and metal prices. After decades of rapid growth, the world’s biggest furniture brand is battling to adapt to the rise of online rivals such as Amazon and made.com, while also trying to maintain its hallmark affordability amid rising raw material and other costs. As part of an overhaul in 2016, design, in-house production and supply chain management transferred to brand owner Inter Ikea from Ikea Group, which owns most of the stores. Inter Ikea said on Monday its net profit for the 12 months through August was €1.45bn, compared with €912m a year earlier, when the firm took €812m in goodwill write-downs for the acquired businesses. “If we took that out of the FY17 result, you get to a net result of 1.7-billion. So, we are actually dropping a bit,” Inter Ikea CFO Martin van Dam said. Inter Ikea reported a 12% rise in net sales to €25.5bn, but said costs — mainly for wood and ...
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