IKEA battles Amazon, Temu as market shifts bring pain to flat-pack dynasty

By Rafaela Lindeberg | Bloomberg

As the first snow fell in November over Älmhult, the small Swedish town where IKEA was born in the 1940s, managers of the world’s biggest furniture retailer from across the globe gathered for its annual summit on products, prices and priorities.

Beneath the bonhomie under the warm glow of Scandinavian lamps and the corporate talk of “togetherness” was a sense of urgency. The iconic global brand with its familiar blue-and-yellow logo is traversing...