Swedish home-furnishing major IKEA has announced its initial step of supporting emergency coronavirus relief with €26 million of in-kind donations, allowing the 30 countries in which it has operations to take more immediate action in their local communities.

IKEA Retail (Ingka Group) announced a series of wide-ranging commitments to help protect the health and livelihoods of those affected by the coronavirus pandemic, including communities, customers, co-workers and its partners. In addition, IKEA Foundation is announcing a funding commitment to support the emergency response.

“These are extraordinary times and our absolute priority is ensuring the health and safety of co-workers, customers, suppliers and communities. We do not know when this challenge will be behind us, but by working together we believe we will emerge stronger than ever,” Peter Betzel, CEO, IKEA India, said in a statement.

“Our focus is on accelerating the actions we are taking to help the communities most affected and supporting the people and our partners across the world,” said Jesper Brodin, CEO, Ingka Group.

Ingka Group has already been supporting local communities in a variety of ways. For example, furniture, face masks and gloves have been donated to hospitals in China, Spain and Sweden. The IKEA Hyderabad store in India has helped to set up a quarantine centre with 200 beds, bedding and furniture.

The IKEA Foundation is also committed to provide up to €10 million.

The Group is working together with the most vital and vulnerable small and medium-sized suppliers and service providers, including social entrepreneurs, supporting them with a set of pro-active measures including cash flow relief.

Around 282 out of 380 IKEA stores around the world operated by Ingka Group are temporarily closed. In China, all stores have reopened other than the one in the Wuhan district.

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