The flat-pack furniture giant Ikea is slashing 300 management jobs from its UK operation after poor performance across the industry, it emerged this evening.

The managers will be invited to accept demotions and the chance to return to the shopfloor where they will stack shelves and help tackle queues.


The Swedish group admitted the “challenging” market had left it needing to make cost cuts.

The news comes just two years after thousands of shoppers greeted the opening of a new branch of Ikea in Edmonton, north London, with a stampede. Five customers were taken to hospital after the crush, one suffering a stab wound, forcing the new shop to close minutes after its grand opening.

Last year the group announced a £1 billion plan to expand in the UK but the job losses confirmed today will come into force by January 2015.

“We wanted to slim down the organisation – we had become too management heavy and so we are taking a management level out,” said Peter Högsted, the chief executive of Ikea in the UK.

Mr Högsted denied that the job cuts were purely designed to make financial savings, suggesting that the company needed to make the changes to tackle customer concerns within the branches. “The customers are saying they want us to invest in more friendly staff and this way we can give them what they want,” he said.

The UK is Ikea’s third largest market, behind Germany and the United States, accounting for 11 per cent of worldwide sales and employing 9,000 staff.

The furniture industry has been struggling in the past few years, although Mr Högsted insists that Ikea are performing better than many competitors. The recent poor weather has seen a belated increase in sales as people turn their attention to the inside of their homes.

An Ikea spokeswoman admitted that continued poor performance in the furniture market had made an impact and that their branches did not always employ “a lean, simple and quick way of working”.

“In addition the home furnishing sector in which we operate has had a couple of challenging years,” she said.

“Indications from the market are that this will continue.Competition continues to strengthen, with many food retailers and global brands moving into the sector.”