On July 1st, Sara Del Fabbro will step into the role of new CEO and Country Manager for IKEA Sweden. She takes over responsibility from Michael Parker, who has been acting CEO since January 1st of this year. Del Fabbro comes from the position of Deputy Retail Manager at Ingka Group, a position she has held since 2021.
Her career within IKEA began in 1999 at the warehouse in Bologna, Italy. Since then, she has held several leading positions, including Deputy Country Manager for IKEA Italy and CEO of IKEA South East Europe between 2019 and 2021.
It is with great humility and curiosity that I undertake this assignment. It is a real privilege to work in the market where IKEA was founded more than 80 years ago, says Sara Del Fabbro and continues:
I look forward to getting to know the employees in Sweden and together with them getting closer to our customers and helping more people realize their dreams at home.
According to Cindy Andersen, Deputy CEO of Ingka Group, Del Fabbro possesses "the qualities needed to lead IKEA Sweden forward".
Takes Office Following Reorganizations
The new Country Manager takes over the business during a period of change. In recent months alone, several cost-saving packages and reorganizations have been presented within the IKEA sphere.
In mid-May, Inter Ikea Group announced that the global workforce would be reduced by approximately 850 positions, of which about 300 are in Sweden, primarily in Malmö and Älmhult. The measure was motivated by a need for shorter decision-making processes and lower costs, after the company's operating profit decreased from approximately SEK 25 billion to just under SEK 19 billion during the last financial year.
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Ingka Group, which operates the majority of IKEA warehouses and which Sara Del Fabbro will now represent in Sweden, is also undergoing structural changes. In March, it was announced that 625 Swedish jobs would be affected by a reorganization where resources are increasingly directed towards e-commerce, logistics and automation. As e-commerce has grown and now accounts for over 20 percent of the company's sales, the physical network is also being transformed, recently resulting in the decision to close the warehouse in Borlänge to replace it with a smaller store format.