Interior design chain Jysk has achieved an 11 % increase in sales last financial year (ending in August). That is a new record for the Danish chain, despite a withdrawal from Russia and reluctant consumers.
Consumers put the brakes on
The new record came despite the fact that the interior design chain was severely challenged by inflation, rising costs and the war in Ukraine in the previous financial year. Sales still rose 11 % to 36.2 billion Danish kroner (4.9 billion euros).
CEO Jan Bøgh was really happy with the result, “in a world where people really need to prioritise where they spend their money”. Indeed, the number of customers still grew by 7.7 million, even though business was under pressure, especially during the summer. Rising inflation meant fewer customers came over and they made smaller purchases.
“We clearly experience that consumers have started to hold back a bit. The growth in both sales and customer numbers was higher before the summer”, Bøgh said. He also admits that some of the ‘new’ customers are people who came back for the first time after the corona pandemic and thus already knew the company. Following Russia’s invasion in Ukraine, Jysk was also forced to permanently close thirty shops in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
Continuing to invest
Despite the many challenges, Jysk does not plan to scale back investment. “We will continue our investments in the company at an unchanged level, because growth is part of our DNA. We are about halfway through the transformation of our existing shops to the latest shop concept and we opened 135 new shops last year. Both are received positively by customers, and this is increasing our sales”, the CEO said.
The retailer does not dare make predictions for the new year. “We live in an uncertain world, so after the lockdowns and a new war in Europe, I stopped predicting too much about what will happen. However, we believe we have a strong business model.”
