News brief
Ikea to raise prices worldwide due to supply chain problems
T
he Swedish furniture giant IKEA will raise prices by an average of 9 percent across its stores worldwide due to problems in the supply chain. Sandra Jakob, the company’s press contact in Sweden, says to TV2 that the price increase is necessary to combat higher costs in connection with freight and logistics as a result of the pandemic. “Unfortunately, there has been a marked increase in costs across
the supply chain, including materials, freight, and logistics. As this is still the case, it is necessary to raise the prices of many of our products,” Sandra Jakob says. She adds that price increases are global, but that how much prices have been raised varies from country to country and from product to product. IKEA has 454 stores operating in 60 countries. Besides the furniture giant’s total of 38 stores in the Nor-
dic Region of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland, IKEA operates in Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, China, Indonesia, and most recently in the Philippines.
Roaming traffic reveals Swedish Thailand travelers
A
new survey, based on Swedish mobile phone roaming traffic in 17 countries, has confirmed obser vations on the ground, that Swedes traveled in high numbers to Thailand over Christmas and New Year. Compared to 10 ScandAsia • February 2022
the Christmas and New Year 2020, the numbers increased over 2500 percent. According to a press release, the Telephone Operator 3 survey shows that travel increased significantly to all seventeen countries
surveyed during the last weeks of 2021 and at the beginning of 2022. The Nordic Region together with Spain and Germany were amongst the Swedes’ most preferred destinations. But Thailand saw by far the biggest increase with 2572 percent. Speaking on the matter, Press Officer at 3 Lovisa van der Schoot says, “We see that Swedes continue to travel abroad. For example, the number of Swedes in Thailand during the last weeks of 2021 was several thousand percent more than during the same period in 2020. It is clear that there is a pent-up need and that many Swedes have travel fever right now.
