Ikea is in talks over returning money to all nine countries that gave the world's largest furniture retailer government support through furlough schemes as it has suffered less than expected from the Covid-19 crisis. Shoppers have returned in force, starting in China. Having entered lockdown before the rest of the world, Chinese consumers also emerged from it earlier— and plenty of them immediately hit Ikea shops. Many bought big and expensive items, says Jesper Brodin, chief executive of Ingka Group, the parent company that holds and operates most Ikea shops involved "an e!ort in crowd control". In Germany, Austria and Switzerland customers thronged to Ikea once its shops were allowed to open.

Ikea's online-shopping figures tell the same story. Internet sales were growing fast before the pandemic, by 43% last year compared with 2018, to 10-11% of total sales. In the past couple of months they jumped to 60% of all sales on peak days of the lockdown across the group. In America, where the furniture giant is planning to start reopening its 50 shops in June, Ikea started to bring back its furloughed workers to look after online orders and provide customer service.

Tolga Oncu, retail operations manager at Ingka Group, the main Ikea retailer, said the company had decided to start a dialogue with Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain and the US. Ikea is in early discussions with the relevant national authorities. Because of differences in how the furlough or short-time working schemes are set up, the company does not yet know how it will pay the governments back.

Mr Oncu said the flat-pack retailer also did not know how much money it would cost or exactly how many workers were involved across the nine countries.

Ikea's decision to return the money lays bare a dilemma for many companies as economies start to recover after the immediate shock following lockdowns from coronavirus across much of the world.

Some other companies have returned furlough money in individual countries, often under pressure from external scrutiny, but few large multinational companies have committed to returning all support.

Mr Oncu said Ikea's priority at the beginning of the crisis in February and March had been to protect employees and their livelihoods as it closed down most of its 374 stores worldwide.

Ikea has also set up a €26m fund for Ikea store leaders to distribute in their local communities. This is on top of looking at improving both remote solutions for its workers and customers as it boosts its digital offering.

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