Retailers should use the downturn to look at expansion and cutting costs but not at the expense of customer service, according to a former Ikea ceo.

'There are a lot of opportunities for business in a downturn. Usually you have better opportunities when it comes to the buying costs, you can improve that. You have better opportunities with negotiating rent down, you have less pressure on salary costs. It's easier to get retail permission for new locations,' says Anders Dahlvig, who was Ikea ceo from 1999-2009 and is promoting a book – Ikea Edge – he has written about his decade in charge.

'If you want to acquire new companies it's usually cheaper and there's more things on the market. Usually what happens in the bad times is that some of your competitors may go out of business. And this will create new consumption for you as a business.'

But cutting costs doesn't mean reducing service, he told the Yorkshire Post. 'Don't reduce your opening hours, don't increase the lines in the checkout, don't be too greedy with the margins and try and reduce your sales prices if necessary to keep your volumes up.'

Dahlvig also says the group has become too large and bureaucratic and splitting it into separate North American, European and Asian companies would allow it to respond to the market better.

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