Coronavirus: Ikea shuts mainland China stores following outbreak January 29, 2020 Ikea is the latest company to announce it will temporarily close stores in China due to the outbreak of coronavirus. The Swedish retailer will shut around half of its 30 stores in mainland China until further notice to help halt the spread of the disease, the company’s owner Ingka Group said. Other global chains including [...]
Ikea shrugs off retail gloom to post sales rise November 7, 2019 Ikea reported an increase in full-year sales as it managed to overcome the challenges facing the UK retail market. Sales in Ikea’s UK business were up eight per cent year on year to £2.1bn, the retailer said in its annual report. Read more: Ikea to face tax repayment order from EU The company reported that [...]
Sorry not sorry: End the apology culture in business October 15, 2019 When David Neeleman, the founder of American airline JetBlue, published a YouTube video entitled “Our Promise to You” in 2007, it was the first corporate social media apology. The video set the standard for modern crisis management. Snow storms and bad planning had forced the airline to cancel more than a thousand flights, affecting over [...]
Notifications to EU Commission about unlawful tax breaks rocket in state aid crackdown May 30, 2019 The number of notifications to the EU Commission about potentially unlawful tax breaks has rocketed as countries take a tougher stance on state aid. In the last five years the Commission was notified about 385 potentially unlawful tax breaks, compared to just 80 between 2007 and 2013. Over the 12 months to 31 March the [...]
Fans queue all night for release of Ikea rug designed by Louis Vuitton’s Virgil Abloh May 2, 2019 Queues stretched around the block this morning as fans of a major international company known for its slim design lined up to get their hands on its most recent product. The shop? Ikea. The item? A rug. The new carpet is a collaboration with Off White, run by Louis Vuitton men’s artistic director Virgil Abloh. [...]
Ikea releases kama sutra guide for bedroom satisfaction March 8, 2019 Swedish furniture retailer Ikea has released a "kama sutra" e-book that presents an array of options for positions that bedroom furniture could be displayed in. The US marketing campaign includes a 44-page e-book with illustrations of various styles accompanied by kama sutra phrases as well as a TV advert. Read more: Goals Soccer Centres' shares plummet [...]
Technology can save the high street and future-proof the entire retail ecosystem March 8, 2019 Ever since the first online transaction over a quarter of a century ago, we’ve been bombarded with a growing number of claims that the high street is dead and online is king. The recent downfall of former offline strongholds such as BHS, Toys R Us, and House of Fraser are often cited as evidence that [...]
Big business needs to step up and take the reins of leadership from the politicians February 6, 2019 I wanna be the leader I wanna be the leader Can I be the leader? Can I? I can? Promise? Promise? Yippee I’m the leader I’m the leader OK what shall we do? Roger McGough did not know how prescient his poem was. The days of Churchill, Thatcher and Mandela are gone. Whether you agreed [...]
The perfect brand name doesn’t exist, so stop searching for it January 28, 2019 Naming a brand is often a tortured process, full of impassioned argument and furrowed brows. Everyone wants to find that silver bullet: the simple, unique name that crystallises everything important about the brand. Well, stop looking. Because you won’t find it – and you don’t need to. Names matter, but never as much as they [...]
Ikea’s change of focus hurts group profits as it braces for redundancies November 28, 2018 Ikea group profits dropped by a quarter in its latest financial year, driven down by billions of pounds invested into adapting to people's changing shopping habits. The furniture giant’s parent company, Ingka Group, reported the €780m (£688.7m) year-on-year drop in its full-year results this morning, blaming spending on transforming its business model to an approach focused heavily on [...]