Ikea has plans to close it’s only U.S. factory site and shift operations to Europe.
What We Know:
- The Swedish manufacturing furniture company, located in Virginia, will close its doors for good in December, cutting about 300 jobs.
- IKEA’s 930,000 square foot facility opened in 2008 in the U.S and employs 300 workers.
- The motivation for IKEA to move to Europe would be cutting cost because importing goods will make its products more affordable in North America.
- According to CNN, “IKEA said Tuesday the decision to close the plant was not related to tariffs. It said that particle board used at the Danville Plant is purchased from US suppliers.”
- The plant site manager Bert Eades told the Journal, “We made every effort to improve and maintain the competitiveness of this plant, but unfortunately the right cost conditions are not in place to continue production in Danville.”
IKEA’s retail business generated the equivalent of $43.5 billion last year.
Just toured IKEA’s Danville manufacturing plant. Asked if the tariffs worry them. They’re ok for now, but because they import a lot of raw materials, they’re concerned about what’s to come. We have to stop this rash policy before it hurts even more U.S. businesses and workers. pic.twitter.com/f5fNO67ky1
— Tim Kaine (@timkaine) April 5, 2018
