IKEA France plans up to 303 job cuts

On 19 October 2026, IKEA France announced a transformation plan involving up to 303 job cuts and the creation of 100 new roles. Focused mainly on head office and administrative functions, the plan comes a month after global IKEA franchisor Inter IKEA announced its own workforce reductions.

A plan focused on administrative functions

In a statement reported by AFP, IKEA France outlined plans to cut “potentially a maximum of 303 positions” through a French statutory redundancy programme known as a plan de sauvegarde de l’emploi. The roles affected are mainly at its head office in the Paris region and in administrative functions.

The figure is therefore an announced upper limit, not the number of employees who have already left. Alongside this, the company plans to create 100 roles to “strengthen the expertise essential to the company’s development”. These two elements should be distinguished: the announcement combines reductions in some areas with recruitment to meet other needs.

IKEA France says the transformation is needed to adapt to “ever stronger competition”. The company employs more than 12,000 people in France, where its network comprises 38 stores, ten planning studios and five depots. According to AFP, its turnover reached €3.5 billion in its 2024–2025 financial year, which does not follow the calendar year.

Two separate announcements within a franchise organisation

The French plan follows a separate announcement made by Inter IKEA Group on 24 September. The owner of the IKEA concept and the brand’s global franchisor announced plans to cut around 850 jobs worldwide, including nearly 300 in Sweden.

For the franchise sector, the news highlights the brand’s distinctive organisational structure. All IKEA retail operations are franchised: 13 groups of companies operate stores under agreements with Inter IKEA Systems. The brand therefore relies on operators contractually linked to the franchisor, rather than a single company bringing together all its global activities.

The September and October announcements consequently cover different parts of the organisation: the global franchisor on the one hand and IKEA France on the other. Their timing should not lead to them being presented as a single French restructuring plan.

Inter IKEA sets three shared objectives for its operating groups: increase sales, lower prices significantly and attract more customers. These commercial priorities provide a common framework for the network as the brand announces changes to its workforce.

A challenging period for the furniture market

The economic backdrop helps explain the French announcement. As AFP notes, the furniture market has faced difficulties for several years, following the upturn after the Covid-19 pandemic. This affects both furniture and home décor franchises and major retailers operating company-owned networks.

The plan also follows industrial action at IKEA France. In July 2025, several hundred employees went on strike, notably over pay and working conditions. This forms part of the employee relations backdrop, but is separate from the redundancy programme announced in October 2026.

The company’s proposed transformation therefore combines potential job cuts with targeted job creation. At this stage, the announced figures describe the plan’s intentions, not the outcome of its implementation.

A Compact store still expected in the Rhône area

Alongside the reorganisation, IKEA is preparing to open a new location in Villefranche-sur-Saône, in the Rhône area of eastern France. According to Le Progrès, an IKEA Compact store is expected to open in early 2027 in the former Alinéa store on Avenue de l’Europe.

A recruitment event is being held on Tuesday 20 October 2026 to fill some of the future team’s roles. Vacancies include team leaders, sales staff and food service staff. This recruitment is therefore linked to a planned opening, while the proposed nationwide job cuts mainly concern head office and administration.

Key takeaway: when following this transformation, it is important to distinguish between IKEA France’s plan, the cuts announced by the global franchisor and recruitment for new locations. These three developments concern different parts of the network.