AROUND 10% OF Ikea product lines are currently unavailable because of issues in their supply chains.

Difficulties with transport, raw materials and sourcing have led to low or no availability of certain products.

Additionally, Ikea has partly attributed “higher customer demand” during the pandemic to the shortages.

In a statement to The Journal, an Ikea spokesperson said that “like many retailers, we are experiencing ongoing challenges with our supply chains due to Covid-19 and labour shortages, with transport, raw materials and sourcing all impacted”.

“In addition, we are seeing higher customer demand as more people are spending more time at home,” the spokesperson said.

“As a result, we are experiencing low availability in some of our ranges with approximately 10% unavailable,” they said.

Ikea hopes that the lack of availability “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.”

Ikea said there are “too many product lines” affected in Ireland to list the specific items that are unavailable.

The shortages have also impacted stores in the UK.

In Dublin, Ikea’s Ballymun store and Carrickmines order-and-collection point reopened on 17 May after Covid-19 restrictions on retailers were eased.

At the start of this year, Ikea labelled an international freight container shortage a “global transport crisis”.

The furniture and bedding industry came under pressure from blockages in global shipping that compounded the difficulties caused by Brexit.

The lack of freight containers became a problem when containers couldn’t be sent back to their country of origin as a result of Covid-19 restrictions.

With reporting by Adam Daly