Ikea is experiencing a massive supply chain breakdown that is leaving its store shelves bare, but in addition to the California shipping issues, this is being experienced globally — not to mention on land, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The causes of the shipping and supply chain breakdowns are similar: a lack of workers and truckers to receive and haul the containers of goods, according to the report.
But this is not even an overseas shipping crisis either, as Ikea says it has its products in warehouses but cannot meet the demand for hauling them to stores fast enough.
The retail giant has reported 10% of its products are missing in the U.K.; similar shortages are reported elsewhere, according to the Journal.
The problems are "very global, from where we sit," said Tolga Öncü of Ingka Holding B.V., the family-controlled retailer's main holding company and the operator of the majority of IKEA's outlets, according to the report.
"In general we are struggling to have the goods in the right place at the right time," Öncü told the Journal.
Like California and the U.S., the U.K. is lacking truck drivers, including those for gasoline tankers. The latter is leading to long lines at fueling stations.
Ikea is not struggling on sales, Öncü told the Journal, noting the rise in digital sales over the past 18 months of the pandemic.
Ikea reported that revenue was up 6.3% to around $43.4 billion in the fiscal year ending Aug. 31. Digital sales accounted for about 30% of its total sales last year, up from 18% year over year, according to the Journal.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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