Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on IKEA Logistics and Transport

The impact of COVID-19 has led to a need for IKEA companies to rethink and revamp their
supply chain logistics management. IKEA retailers were forced to temporarily close some
stores. For example, in Europe. In France, Israel, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia,
Belgium and the United Kingdom, about one tenth of IKEA stores were closed. In addition,
at the peak of Covid-19 in April 2020, about three-quarters of IKEA’s 450 stores closed – an
average of seven weeks each. IKEA Company has been greatly affected by the coronavirus
pandemic as far as logistics and transport are concerned. Ideally, as people were driven home
by the Covid-19 pandemic, it was a boom for the Swedish retailer IKEA since there was
increased demand for household goods. However, this was not trouble-free, and many of the
company’s product lines went unavailable. Notably, IKEA has been struggling with supply
chain problems due to a shortage of drivers since the emergence of the covid-19 pandemic.
Arguably, the shortage of products such as mattresses at some stores was due to the Covid-19
pandemic. According to the IKEA manager, all the 22 stores in UK and Ireland have been
having supply problems with up to 10% of their stock which amounts to around 1000 product
lines failing to survive in the market (Alaouir & Orahem, 2021). Ideally, like many retailers,
IKEA is experiencing ongoing challenges with its supply chain due to the coronavirus
pandemic, which has resulted in a shortage of labor, challenges in transport, and the
acquisition of raw materials. However, there has been an increased customer demand since
many people are now spending more time at home.

Essentially, what IKEA Company is experiencing is a perfect storm of challenges including

disruption of global trade flows and shortage of drivers which has been significantly caused
by the Covid-19 pandemic. More specifically, there has been a disruption in the global
container shipping in the industry due to the pandemic which has caused a shortage of lorry
drivers. According to Kullnig (2020), there is a shortage of more than 100000 drivers in the
UK. Arguably, during the coronavirus pandemic as travel restrictions were imposed many
lorry drivers from Europe went home to their own countries, and then decided to seek jobs
elsewhere. Moreover, the tax changes on drivers also increased which made it more
expensive for foreign drivers to work in the UK. Notably, logistics firms have been seen
requesting the government to allow temporary work visas for Lories in the short term to help
the company alleviate the problem. Nonetheless, the government has always insisted that
companies must do more to get more UK drivers. According to Kullnig (2020), during the
last year, IKEA company shipped more volumes of its products than compared to this year
after the pandemic disrupted the transport sector.

In conclusion, the furniture stores like IKEA are not the only ones impacted by the Covid-19
pandemic, especially in UK and Ireland, where trade and transport issues have been a
challenge. Nonetheless, IKEA Company can take other remedies to ensure that they mitigate
the challenge. First, I believe that IKEA Company is experiencing transport issues since it has
in the past depended on foreign drivers. Therefore, if the company can change and start
training drivers from the UK, this problem can get solved. Even with the continued impact of
COVID-19 and the unknown future, IKEA has set itself up with a strong base by building an
efficiency and sustainable supply chain. IKEA’s supply chain channel has helped the
company’s production as well as logistics through the current crisis and any difficulties that
may be coming up in the next few years.

Reference: https://lastmilelogisticsops.com/?p=2261 November 20, 2021