The Swedish furniture store Ikea achieved record sales this year: Sales rose to a total of 41.9 billion euros by August 31, 2021, an increase of around 6 percent compared to the previous year.

This means that sales are also slightly higher than before the corona pandemic, which was 41.3 billion euros.

The company announced on Thursday.

Stefanie Diemand

Editor in business.

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The heart of the group is the so-called Ingka Group with revenues of 37.4 billion euros.

With more than 370 furniture stores in 30 countries, it is the largest franchisee within the Ikea group.

“I am really proud of the past year,” Ingka boss Jesper Brodin is quoted in a message from the company.

The times are challenging, but it was still possible to “create a better Ikea”.

Billy Regal affected

During the crisis, Ikea benefited from the fact that more and more people were refurbishing their homes.

Ikea has grown above all in the online area, which became more and more important during the corona pandemic due to closed furniture stores: online revenues grew by 73 percent.

This made up more than a quarter of group sales.

But the delivery bottlenecks are also causing problems for the largest furniture company in the world: According to the company, there was a “significant drop in availability” over the course of the financial year.

Currently, cabinets from the Pax series and the Billy shelf, one of the best-known Ikea products, are particularly affected.

The outlook for the coming year is therefore unusually cautious for the furniture company: the supply bottlenecks could continue "well into the 2022 financial year", the group predicts.

"The biggest challenge is getting products from China, where capacity is very limited," Jon Abrahamsson Ring told the Financial Times.

Abrahamsson Ring heads the franchisor Inter Ikea.

Ikea therefore continues to expect increased transport and raw material prices.

However, the higher costs should not be passed on to the customers of the furniture store.

“We want to make Ikea even more affordable,” he continues.

A large part of sales in the next year should therefore be achieved with even more affordable products.