Ikea hit by 'very low' consumer confidence

Stockholm: Swedish furniture giant Ikea reported Thursday a one percent drop in sales for its 2024 2025 fiscal year, due to its price reductions and c...

Stockholm: Swedish furniture giant Ikea reported Thursday a one-percent drop in sales for its 2024-2025 fiscal year, due to its price reductions and consumers tightening purse strings.

Sales for the full year, which closed at the end of August, fell to 44.6 billion euros ($52 billion) but volumes and the number of customers rose by three percent, Ikea's holding company Inter Ikea said.

"We have prioritised lower prices, volume and customer growth the last two years," Inter Ikea chief executive Jon Abrahamsson Ring told AFP.

The company has reduced its prices by 10 percent over the past two years, in a bid to revive traffic at its online and brick-and-mortar stores.

At the same time, "for several years in a row now, consumer confidence has been decreasing", Abrahamsson Ring said.