In spite of generally decreasing or stagnant sales of furniture and interior decorating articles in many countries across the world, JYSK continues its progress. This is not only in terms of expansion to more countries, but also in terms of opening more stores and increasing turnover in existing stores and online.
The financial year 2015/16 resulted in a turnover of 3,123b EUR and an EBIT result of 421m EUR.
At the same time, JYSK has opened 105 new stores in the 43 countries in which JYSK was already present by the end of the financial year. Since then, JYSK has entered Georgia and Belarus which makes the current number of JYSK countries 45.
”We have good reason to be pleased with the result. Our goal is for JYSK to grow and make money, and we have succeeded in achieving that goal. I want to use this opportunity to thank our dedicated employees across the world. It is thanks to their hard work that we are once again able to present a record-breaking financial result,” says chairman of the board and owner of JYSK, Lars Larsen.
In Eastern Europe in particular, an increasing number of customers are choosing to shop at JYSK, and it is also in this part of Europe that the development is most rapid in terms of opening new stores.
Currently, JYSK has 200 stores in Poland, making it the biggest JYSK country, while Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Slovenia and Croatia are other markets where JYSK experiences rapid growth in the number of customers and stores.
”JYSK has received a fantastic response in Eastern Europe, and the customers are very pleased with our assortment and our way of doing business. The Scandinavian style of our products and the Scandinavian approach to both customers and employees are definitely part of the reason why so many people choose JYSK,” Lars says.
Lars also points out the Netherlands where JYSK opened its first store in 2006, and where the company has since worked on making a profit. The financial year 2015/16 became the first year where the company reached a profit in the country.
”The Netherlands is a great example of why we have to be patient. We have known the entire time that we would eventually make money in the Netherlands, and now we are starting to do so. That also means that we are ready to enter Belgium in 2017,” says Lars Larsen.
In Belgium and the rest of the world, JYSK believes that the recipe for further success is to continue down the current path the business is on. This is to a large extent about combining the value of a big number of stores with the many new opportunities of doing business online.
Lars concludes: ”I do not think that e-commerce will ever outperform the physical stores, and therefore JYSK will continue to open about 100 new stores every year. But at the same time we have to give the customers more and better opportunities to shop online, so that JYSK has the best offers and the best customer service, regardless of whether customers prefer to enter a physical store or to shop at home in front of the computer.”
