The Swedish home furnishings giant is closing its London pickup store, along with others in Ontario, it said Monday in a news release.
Business
IKEA to close London pickup store at month's end – The London Free Press
Ikea’s London experiment is over.
The Swedish home furnishings giant is closing its London pickup store, along with others in Ontario, it said Monday in a news release.
The London store opened in 2015 “as part of a global test” to learn more about how customers shop and “we gathered many valuable insights which will inform how we continue to evolve and adapt as a business,” read a statement from Ikea spokesperson Kristin Newbigging.
Now, however, the retailer will close pickup and order point stores in Kitchener, London, St. Catharines, Whitby and Windsor at the end of this month.
“We appreciate the support we’ve received from these communities over the past several years and we remain committed to serving them in the best possible way,” said Newbigging.
It cited “urbanization, technology and digitalization” as reasons for the closings and hinted it will have more of an online presence, saying it will “explore new solutions with a focus on enhancing our digital tools and improving our local service offer.”
With pickup points closing Jan. 29, the last day for customers to order is Wednesday.
In 2017 Ikea announced it planned a full-service store in London, south of Highway 401 and Wellington Road, near the Costco store. It owns a parcel of land next to Costco.
“We can confirm we do have a purchase agreement for the site. As you know, we had previously announced plans to delay the London store project. At this time, we have no additional updates to share on the status and that project is unrelated to the decision to close the pickup and order points,” said Newbigging.
Ikea cancelled the plan for a full-service store in 2018, amid suggestions the push to online sales with Amazon and Wayfair had changed the retail landscape.
“As we all know, we are in a rapidly changing retail environment. At Ikea in Canada and globally, we are transforming our business to ensure we are fit for long-term growth,” Newbigging added. “This includes shifting expansion plans, exploring new formats and investing in e-commerce and services.”
“We still see potential in the London market and we are committed to keeping the city and community updated on plans as we evaluate the best solution for the market. In the meantime, our focus today is on enhancing our digital tools.
The London store was supposed to be part of Ikea Canada’s shift in smaller markets. Ikea opened stores in Halifax and Quebec City.
The nearest Ikea to London is in Burlington.
Parcel and home delivery options will still be available.
At the pickup store customers were able to get the home furnishings they had ordered online.
Business
Dow Jones Rises But S&P, Nasdaq Fall; Nvidia, SMCI Flash Sell Signals As Bitcoin's Fourth Halving Arrives – Investor's Business Daily
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Business
Netflix stock sinks on disappointing revenue forecast, move to scrap membership metrics – Yahoo Canada Finance
Netflix (NFLX) stock slid as much as 9.6% Friday after the company gave a second quarter revenue forecast that missed estimates and announced it would stop reporting quarterly subscriber metrics closely watched by Wall Street.
On Thursday, Netflix guided to second quarter revenue of $9.49 billion, a miss compared to consensus estimates of $9.51 billion.
The company said it will stop reporting quarterly membership numbers starting next year, along with average revenue per member, or ARM.
“As we’ve evolved our pricing and plans from a single to multiple tiers with different price points depending on the country, each incremental paid membership has a very different business impact,” the company said.
Netflix reported first quarter earnings that beat across the board on Thursday, with another 9 million-plus subscribers added in the quarter.
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Subscriber additions of 9.3 million beat expectations of 4.8 million and followed the 13 million net additions the streamer added in the fourth quarter. The company added 1.7 million paying users in Q1 2023.
Revenue beat Bloomberg consensus estimates of $9.27 billion to hit $9.37 billion in the quarter, an increase of 14.8% compared to the same period last year as the streamer leaned on revenue initiatives like its crackdown on password-sharing and ad-supported tier, in addition to the recent price hikes on certain subscription plans.
Netflix’s stock has been on a tear in recent months, with shares currently trading near the high end of its 52-week range. Wall Street analysts had warned that high expectations heading into the print could serve as an inherent risk to the stock price.
Earnings per share (EPS) beat estimates in the quarter, with the company reporting EPS of $5.28, well above consensus expectations of $4.52 and nearly double the $2.88 EPS figure it reported in the year-ago period. Netflix guided to second quarter EPS of $4.68, ahead of consensus calls for $4.54.
Profitability metrics also came in strong, with operating margins sitting at 28.1% for the first quarter compared to 21% in the same period last year.
The company previously guided to full-year 2024 operating margins of 24% after the metric grew to 21% from 18% in 2023. Netflix expects margins to tick down slightly in Q2 to 26.6%.
Free cash flow came in at $2.14 billion in the quarter, above consensus calls of $1.9 billion.
Meanwhile, ARM ticked up 1% year over year — matching the fourth quarter results. Wall Street analysts expect ARM to pick up later this year as both the ad-tier impact and price hike effects take hold.
On the ads front, ad-tier memberships increased 65% quarter over quarter after rising nearly 70% sequentially in Q3 2023 and Q4 2023. The ads plan now accounts for over 40% of all Netflix sign-ups in the markets it’s offered in.
Alexandra Canal is a Senior Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on X @allie_canal, LinkedIn, and email her at alexandra.canal@yahoofinance.com.
Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance
Business
Oil Prices Erase Gains as Iran Downplays Reports of Israeli Missile Attack – OilPrice.com
- Oil prices initially spiked on Friday due to unconfirmed reports of an Israeli missile strike on Iran.
- Prices briefly reached above $90 per barrel before falling back as Iran denied the attack.
- Iranian media reported activating their air defense systems, not an Israeli strike.
Oil prices gave up nearly all of early Friday’s gains after an Iranian official told Reuters that there hadn’t been a missile attack against Iran.
Oil surged by as much as $3 per barrel in Asian trade early on Friday after a U.S. official told ABC News today that Israel launched missile strikes against Iran in the early morning hours today. After briefly spiking to above $90 per barrel early on Friday in Asian trade, Brent fell back to $87.10 per barrel in the morning in Europe.
The news was later confirmed by Iranian media, which said the country’s air defense system took down three drones over the city of Isfahan, according to Al Jazeera. Flights to three cities including Tehran and Isfahan were suspended, Iranian media also reported.
Israel’s retaliation for Iran’s missile strikes last week was seen by most as a guarantee of escalation of the Middle East conflict since Iran had warned Tel Aviv that if it retaliates, so will Tehran in its turn and that retaliation would be on a greater scale than the missile strikes from last week. These developments were naturally seen as strongly bullish for oil prices.
However, hours after unconfirmed reports of an Israeli attack first emerged, Reuters quoted an Iranian official as saying that there was no missile strike carried out against Iran. The explosions that were heard in the large Iranian city of Isfahan were the result of the activation of the air defense systems of Iran, the official told Reuters.
Overall, Iran appears to downplay the event, with most official comments and news reports not mentioning Israel, Reuters notes.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that “there is no damage to Iran’s nuclear sites,” confirming Iranian reports on the matter.
The Isfahan province is home to Iran’s nuclear site for uranium enrichment.
“Brent briefly soared back above $90 before reversing lower after Iranian media downplayed a retaliatory strike by Israel,” Saxo Bank said in a Friday note.
The $5 a barrel trading range in oil prices over the past week has been driven by traders attempting to “quantify the level of risk premium needed to reflect heightened tensions but with no impact on supply,” the bank said, adding “Expect prices to bid ahead of the weekend.”
At the time of writing Brent was trading at $87.34 and WTI at $83.14.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana Paraskova
Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews.
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