profit /'pr?fit/

n. 利润

Ikea’s profits have fallen by more than a third as the world’s biggest furnishing retailer¹ invests in improving its online business and tests smaller city-centre stores.

宜家作为全球最大的家具零售商，投资改善了自己的网购生意，并且开始测试在市中心开一些小型的店面；而在这么做之后，它的利润跌了1/3。

Ingka, the holding company that runs the vast majority of Ikea stores, said pre-tax profits for its main operations were down 36% to €2.1bn and sales rose 2% to €37bn as to 31 August, 2018.

宜家的绝大部分门店都归一家叫Ingka的控股公司运营，而Ingka说：截至2018年8月31日，他们的总销售额上升了2%，达到了370亿欧元；但他们经营活动的税前总利润却下降了36%，跌至了21亿欧元。

During the year, the group invested €2.8bn, the majority of which funded 14 new distribution centres to cater² for online business.

在这一年当中，整个集团总共投资了28亿欧元，其中的大部分都被用来资助网购系统的14个分拣中心了。

It also bought windfarms in Finland and Portugal and forests in Latvia and the US, as part of its sustainability efforts, and acquired the odd-job gig economy app TaskRabbit.

他们还在芬兰和葡萄牙买了风力电厂、在拉脱维亚和美国买了森林，这都是他们在可持续发展上做的努力。此外他们还收购了零工平台app TaskRabbit。

The fall in profits came after Ikea said it was cutting 7,500 office jobs worldwide to focus on improving its online operation and city-centre format³.

在这次利润下降之前，宜家刚宣布要在全球范围内裁减7500个办公室职位，以图集中注意力来优化他们的在线运营以及城市中心店业态。

The Swedish group, which employs 160,000 people, said the jobs would go over the next couple of years, and would mainly affect administrative⁴ staff in central support functions across the 30 countries where it operates.

这家瑞典集团总共有160000名员工，公司说要裁撤的那些职位会在接下来的几年内陆续裁掉，主要是裁掉他们经营范围内30个国家里的那些中央支持部门的行政管理岗位。

The CFO of Ingka, said: “During the year we have increased our efforts and investments to start to transform our business. While this has had an impact on our results, it is a conscious decision for us to start a three-year period to transform our business and be better equipped for the next 75 years. Our financial strength enables us to invest over the long term, and with purpose, in our own future.”

Ingka的CFO说：“这些年，我们为了转型投入了越来越多的人力和财力。虽然这样做对我们的财务状况造成了一些影响，但这是个比较理性的做法：用3年的时间来转型，好让我们能更好地应对后面的75年。我们的财务实力让我们可以有意识地为自己的未来做一些长远的投资。”

今日词汇

profit /'pr?fit/

n. 利润

这个词的名词含义很简单，就是“利润”。

例如：

The company made a healthy profit on the deal.

该公司在这笔交易上赚到了丰厚的利润。

我们通常用词组 for profit 来表示“以营利为目的”：

This agency is voluntary and not run for profit.

这家机构是自愿性质的，并不是以营利为目的。

此外，它也是动词，

它一方面可以表示“从……获益”，这个时候要与 from 连用：

Students are profiting from the new legislation.

新的法规会使学生们收益。

另它一方面可以表示“使……获益”，这个时候直接用profit sb./sth. ：

Many teachers believe the legislation will profit them, too.

很多老师也觉得这个法规对自己有益。