Ikea is considering setting up production across the US and the Americas as it looks to limit the impact of ongoing shipping disruption.
Inter Ikea, which is responsible for supplying products to the retailer’s franchise stores globally, told The Financial Times it was exploring the move as it battles with the fallout from the conflict in the Red Sea.
Global supply manager Susanne Waidzunas said “One of the markets where we have less regional presence when it comes to production footprint is North America.”
“There we do have extra efforts put into reviewing how we could increase our footprint…We see a lot of opportunities in South and Central America. But we also see opportunities in the US.”
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She said the American market was “very dependent on ocean flows”, compared to Europe and China, where most of the goods were produced locally.
However, Waidzunas said the business is “strengthening [supply chains] even further now to reduce unhealthy dependencies” on particular countries or trade lanes.
Ikea warned back in December that the disruption from Houthi rebels targeting ships in the Red Sea “will result in delays and may cause availability constraints for certain Ikea products”.
Waidzunas said that the furniture giant was now seeing “high pressure” across its supply chain. “We quite quickly adapted safety stock levels [but] we are not immune to the impact.”
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