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INGVAR KAMPRAD

Ikea assembles record-breaking profits

Swedish furniture giant Ikea finished off the most recent fiscal year with record-setting profits, according to media reports.

Ikea assembles record-breaking profits

The company hauled in 211 billion kronor ($31.3 billion) in revenues over the past year, up 8 percent from the previous year, enough to yield a pre-tax profit of 26.5 billion kronor according to the company’s first annual summary of its financial details.

Ikea is an unlisted, family-owned company and until now has not released

regular earnings reports.

“2009 was a tough year. After a longer period of increased costs for energy, food and housing, the economic crisis put further strain on everyone’s income,” Ikea vice-president and chief financial officer Sören Hansen said.

“During this challenging year, we have seen the importance of value for money increasing and, as a result, we have been able to attract even more customers to our stores,” he said in the company’s earnings report.

Friday’s report also included some figures on the company’s year to August 2010, with sales up 7.7 percent.

Ikea CEO Mikael Ohlsson, told business daily Dagen Industri (DI) thatthe company expects to increase its market share as it forges ahead with expansion in Russia and China, and eyes establishing stores in Serbia and Croatia.

In addition, Inter Ikea, which owns the Ikea concept and brand and is owned by the family of Ikea-founder Ingvar Kamprad, received 6.3 billion kronor out of Ikea’s operations during the last fiscal year, according to DI.

Ikea – famed for its flat-pack stylish furniture – has 280 stores in 26 countries. Some 204 stores are in Europe, which accounted for 79 percent of its year to August 2010 sales.

The usually secretive company also said Friday that its board decided in December 2009 to release a financial results summary annually.

“The yearly summary is aimed at our co-workers and suppliers as well as other stakeholders, who have shown an increasing interest in knowing more about different parts of Ikea,” said Mikael Ohlsson, who took over as CEO in 2009.

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WEATHER

Danish Ikea store shelters staff and customers overnight during snowstorm

Heavy snowfall left 31 people looking for a spare cushion at the Aalborg branch of Ikea on Wednesday as they were forced to spend the night at the store.

A file photo at Ikea in Aalborg, where 31 people stayed overnight during a snowstorm on December 1st 2021.
A file photo at Ikea in Aalborg, where 31 people stayed overnight during a snowstorm on December 1st 2021. Photo: Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix

Anyone who has found themselves wandering the mazy aisles of an Ikea might be able to empathise with the sense of being lost in the furniture store for a seemingly indefinite time.

Such a feeling was probably more real than usual for six customers and 25 staff members who were forced to spend the night at the furniture giant’s Aalborg branch after being snowed in.

Heavy snow in North Jutland brought traffic to a standstill and halted public transport in parts of the region on Wednesday afternoon, resulting in a snow-in at Ikea.

“This is certainly a new situation for us,” Ikea Aalborg store manager Peter Elmose told local media Nordjyske, which first reported the story.

“It’s certainly not how I thought my day would end when I drove to work this morning,” Elmose added.

The 31 people gathered in the store’s restaurant area and planned to see Christmas television and football to pass the evening, the store’s manager reported to Nordjyske.

“Our kitchen staff have made sure there is hot chocolate, risalamande, pastries, soft drinks, coffee and the odd beer for us in light of the occasion. So we’ll be able to keep warm,” he said.

“We couldn’t just send them outside and lock the door behind them at our 8pm closing time. Absolutely not. So of course they’ll be staying here,” he added.

The temporary guests were given lodging in different departments of the store in view of the Covid-19 situation, Nordjyske writes.

“For us , the most important thing was to take care of each other and that everyone feels safe,” Elmose said.

At least Ikea’s stranded customers and staff had somewhere comfortable to lay their heads.

The same can unlikely be said for around 300 passengers at the city’s airport who had to stay overnight at the terminal.

The airport was forced to stop flights from 2:30pm yesterday amid worsening weather, which also prevented buses from transferring passengers to hotels.

“We have around 300 people in the terminal right now and have been giving out blankets on the assumption they will be staying here tonight,” Aalborg Airport operations manager Kim Bermann told Nordjyske.

READ ALSO: Ikea reopens in Denmark after country’s worst retail month this century

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