Ikea facing mattress shortages as demand soars

IKEA is struggling to meet high UK demand on a number of its products, especially mattresses, it has said.

The furniture giant has been hit by issues in its supply chain, caused by Covid-19 and labour shortages.

A spokesperson for the company said transport, raw materials and sourcing were all impacted.

“We are seeing higher customer demand as more people are spending more time at home,” the Ikea spokesperson explained.

“As a result, we are experiencing low availability in some of our ranges, including mattresses. We hope this will reduce as the situation improves in the coming weeks and months.

“Going forward, we’re constantly looking for more opportunities to secure product availability for our customers and apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.”

Many companies have said in recent weeks they are struggling to fill shelves and meet demand from customers coming out of lockdown.

A historic shortage of lorry drivers has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. According to one estimate, 30,000 driving licence tests for heavy goods vehicles did not take place last year due to social distancing.

Before the pandemic, the UK already had a shortfall of 60,000 drivers. This has now risen to around 100,000.

A company which bottles CocaCola said last week it is facing aluminium can shortages. Pub chain Wetherspoon said it was running short of some beers in some pubs, and Nando’s closed some of its restaurants amid shortages.

Yet, according to the closely followed Purchasing Managers’ Index, the UK manufacturing sector beat expectations last month, and is growing strongly.

Last week British Retail Consortium (BRC) director of food and sustainability Andrew Opie said that while Christmas will be challenging this year, it is too early to be predicting food shortages over the period.