Leaders of global furniture retailer Ikea said it expects supply chain woes to last well into 2022.
Congestion at ports and a lack of truck drivers are the main issues, with about 10% of its products unavailable in the United Kingdom. While the shortages are most visible in the U.K., similar problems are affecting the store worldwide.
WHITE HOUSE THINKS INFLATION AND SUPPLY CHAIN WOES ARE ‘HIGH CLASS’ PROBLEMS
“In general we are struggling to have the goods in the right place at the right time,” Tolga Oncu, the retail operations manager for Ikea’s main holding company, told the Wall Street Journal.
“One thing we have learned is it is difficult to predict. You need to be on it every day and find the best solutions,” said CEO Jesper Brodin. “At the same time from a realistic point, we need to live with disturbances for the year to come, but things will gradually get better, I’m sure.”
Ikea has invested in additional storage in countries where its production is based to hold items until they can be moved. The problems aren’t affecting the bottom line, however, as the company’s revenue grew 6.3% during the last fiscal year.
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The Biden administration has claimed that the major disruptions in global supply chains will not affect average citizens.
White House chief of staff Ron Klain retweeted a claim from the former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Jason Furman that “most of the economic problems we’re facing … are high class problems.”
“We wouldn’t have had them if the unemployment rate was still 10%,” he continued. “We would instead have had a much worse problem.”
