IKEA's parent company Ingka Group is cutting 800 office roles at its Sweden and Netherlands headquarters after CEO Jesper Brodin acknowledged the company has "grown too complex." Sales have declined for two consecutive years, a rare trajectory for a brand that dominated affordable furniture for decades.
The restructuring targets middle management and administrative overhead, not store-level workers. This follows a pattern seen across retail in 2026: companies are flattening hierarchies and reducing corporate layers while maintaining frontline operations. Home Depot, Target, and Macy's have all made similar structural moves.
At 166,000 employees globally, IKEA's 800-person cut represents less than 0.5% of its total workforce. But the signal matters more than the number. When the world's largest furniture retailer admits it has become too bureaucratic to compete, it reflects a broader reckoning in retail about organizational bloat accumulated during the growth years of the 2010s.