// Ikea’s European distribution centres now have the same level of stock as pre-pandemic as transport routes become “unclogged”
// The homewares giant had slimmed down its product range to ensure stock availability amid disruption to global supply chains. It will now start widening its offer
Ikea’s European warehouses are now fully stocked as supply chain disruption eases.
The furniture and homewares giant has been slimming down its range to ensure that its stores remained stock during the global supply chain crisis that has hit availability across many retailers but will now start widening its product offer.
Tolga Oncu, retail manager at Ingka Group, which runs most of Ikea’s stores globally, told Reuters: “If you look at Europe our stores are back at the same inventory levels as we were 2019. This has happened just recently.”
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“We have started to see some transport corridors are improving, the flow of goods is improved, lead times from suppliers to our stores are shortening.
“Corridors that were clogged are becoming unclogged. The suppliers of our transports are telling us ‘we have more capacity now to transport your goods’.”
Ikea had also been re-routing goods between warehouses and leasing more ships to ensure it had enough stock over the past year.
The retailer had benefited from the fact that around 70% of products sold in Europe are produced across the continent, reducing transport distances.
Oncu said it was still experiencing supply chain issues outside of Europe.
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