Sweden - Furniture Industry: Ikea to slash 7,500 jobs, focus on smaller stores in city centers - by James Rufus Koren

Furniture giant Ikea plans to cut 7,500 jobs worldwide as part of a plan to cater more to online customers, the company said Wednesday.

The shakeup at the Swedish firm, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, shows that even Ikea - known for its massive suburban stores and affordable assemble-yourself furniture - is not immune to the online competition that has affected other brick-and-mortar retailers.

Most of the job cuts will not hit Ikea's retail workers, but rather those in office positions including human resources and communications, the Journal said.

Read more: Ikea to slash 7,500 jobs, focus on smaller stores in city centers

After treaty deal, what future for the EU? : Europe World

Earthtimes.org "After treaty deal, what future for the EU? Posted : Mon, 10 Dec 2007 06:49:19 GMT

Brussels - The Lisbon Treaty, due to be signed by European Union heads of government or state flying into the Portuguese capital on December 13, is meant to end years of "navel-gazing". Now that the protracted, inward-looking debate over the union's institutional shake-up has been successfully dealt with, so the argument goes, the 27-member bloc is free to focus on finding practical solutions to "real" problems."

Business Wire: New Report Analyses the Furniture Distribution Market in Europe

For the complete report from the Business Wire click on this link

New Report Analyses the Furniture Distribution Market in Europe

This report offers a comparative analysis of home furniture distribution in Western Europe (Austria, Belgium-Luxembourg, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom), providing trends in home furniture consumption, distribution channels' market shares, furniture imports and short company profiles. For each country, home furniture consumption is broken down by distribution channel: furniture chains, franchising, buying groups; independent furniture retailers; non-specialist distributors (department stores, multistores, hypermarkets, DIY); direct sales, craftsmen, mail order. The analysis of furniture distribution by product/segment covers: upholstered furniture and kitchen furniture. Home furniture imports are broken down by country, geographical area and product (upholstered furniture, kitchen furniture, dining and living room furniture, bedroom furniture). Short profiles of major home furniture distributors with analysis of sales performance are also available. Addresses of about 480 furniture distributors mentioned in the report are also included.