MALMO, Sweden (Reuters) -Inter IKEA Group CEO Jon Abrahamsson Ring will step down at the end of the year, the owner of the world's biggest furniture brand said on Thursday, with Jakub Jankowski taking over as trade tensions and U.S. tariffs loom over the sector.

Jankowski, the 49-year-old Polish managing director of IKEA Industry, the group's manufacturing business, will become group CEO on January 1, 2026. He has previously held roles in Poland, Romania, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden.

In an interview, Jankowski told Reuters that he planned to ensure Inter IKEA Group, which supplies furniture and franchises the brand to IKEA retailers globally, met the demands of a customer base coping with global economic headwinds.

"With all that's going on around the world, with inflation, with many people having less money in their wallets, it's super important for us that we become even more affordable and accessible to be relevant for customers," he said.

Global industries, including furniture manufacturing, have faced supply chain disruptions and uncertainty this year as U.S. President Donald Trump has sought to reshape trade in Washington's favour using import tariffs.

IKEA, the seller of $79 bookcases, is more reliant on imports in the U.S. than in other regions of the world, leaving it particularly exposed to U.S. import levies.

"Our purpose is to give as many as possible access to good home furnishing that ... is as affordable as possible. And our experience is that tariffs do not help that," Abrahamsson Ring, who has served as CEO since 2020, told Reuters.

Thursday's announcement comes a month after the biggest IKEA franchisee, Ingka Group, named Spaniard Juvencio Maeztu as its new CEO.

Abrahamsson Ring, 51, said the events were not connected, and the timing was right for him to leave. Having held roles at IKEA between 1998 and 2008, including as assistant to IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad, he rejoined in 2017.

The Swede navigated the group through a period of global supply chain disruptions and high raw material costs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led IKEA to hike prices in 2021 and 2022.

To boost affordability and lure inflation-weary shoppers back, IKEA has since cut prices across its range of products, driving revenues down last year.

Jankowski said he aims to bring prices back to their pre-pandemic levels.

The changing of the guard at both Inter IKEA and Ingka Group marks the first time both companies, which centers their marketing around their Swedish roots, are led by non-Swedes.