Companies give back to the state the support received through quarantine: there is someone who needs more money

Felit, who operates the Ikea store in Vilnius, requested state support to compensate for downtime only in March.

“The amount of support received was 10.4 thousand,” said Johannes R. Johannesson, Ikea’s head of sales for the Baltic countries.

He added that he decided to return the compensation received for downtime to the state and not request additional support. State support was paid in mid-May.

“This decision was based on Ikea’s performance during and after quarantine: e-commerce grew significantly after the store closed, and both visitor numbers and turnover dynamics exceeded initial forecasts after the opening of the store. store.

Only one in two Ikea employees worked in April. Everyone else was on downtime, on annual vacations, they had a certificate of incapacity for work. After the store opened, in May until the end of quarantine, all employees gradually returned to their jobs.

Following the announcement of the quarantine, Ikea Lietuva was included in the list of companies affected by COVID-19, which were given the opportunity to defer payment of personal income, value added tax and other taxes to Sodra. In late May, deferred taxes were paid for Ikea Lietuva (€ 3 million), ”said Johannesson.

According to Sodra, on June 30, Felit had 587 employees, whose average gross wages paid in May were € 1,079.19 (approximately € 715 net).

It came back faster than expected

Inga Urbonavičiūtė, General Manager of Ikea Industry Lietuva, said that during the pandemic, the company’s operations were severely affected by the lack of orders or, in some cases, their absence.

Ikea Industry Lietuva (patch panels and furniture factories) is no exception. The operation of the panel factory was temporarily suspended, and the furniture factory was operating at partial capacity. At that time, Ikea Industry Lietuva, like other Ikea Industry divisions, requested government support and financial assistance. It was the right decision at the time.

Today, we have a much better picture of the impact of a pandemic on our business. We can start working earlier than planned and at a much faster rate than we initially expected. Therefore, Ikea Industry has decided to return the funds received from the Government, “said I. Urbonavičiūtė.

The company returned 5,353 euros.

As of June 30, Ikea Industry Lietuva had 732 employees, whose average gross wages paid in May were 1,268.70 euros (approximately 822 net).

Is there someone who needs more

Dainius Smailys, Director of Corporate Affairs and Communications for Švyturys-Utenos alus, stated that the company returned around 9,300 LTL. euros

“We evaluated our financial and economic situation and decided that there are companies in Lithuania that have suffered more from the virus and need subsidies more than we do,” he said.

The interlocutor explained that the situation had stabilized.

“We see that the beer market in stores has not changed significantly. The fact that all cafes and bars were closed for 2.5 months had little effect. That is about 20 percent. Our business.

As the saddest scenarios did not materialize and began to operate in May, the activities of our company also returned to normal.

We see that we will probably not suffer large losses. Of course, if there is no second or third wave. Therefore, we decided to return the money to the state, “D. Smailys told Delfi.

On June 30, Švyturys-Utenos alus had 341 employees, for whom the average gross salary paid in May was 1,939.70 euros (approximately 1,203 net).