Despite the Covid crisis and the forced store closures it caused, Denmark’s Jysk closed its financial year with a record turnover of 4.39 billion euros.
Accelerated shift
Jysk had a particularly tough time in its main market, Germany, where stores remained closed for approximately four of the twelve months of its latest financial year (1 September 2020 to 31 August 2021). Nevertheless, the home furnishings chain saw total sales increase by 7 % to 4.39 billion euros. According to CEO Jan Bøgh, customers in Europe were not only spending more on home furnishing, but Jysk also managed to quickly adapt to the new reality, focusing much more on online sales.
Revenues from e-commerce (excluding click-and-collect) rose by a staggering 43 %. “Because customers [using click-and-collect] pay in-store, it does not count as online sales in Jysk in terms of accounting, but it is obvious that the interaction between our webshops and physical stores has been absolutely crucial for us to be able to raise our turnover in the past financial year”, says Bøgh.
Growing continuously
At the end of August, the retailer had 3085 stores, an increase of 136 year-on-year. Jysk plans to continue investing in new stores in the coming years. In addition, a large number of stores will be converted to the latest concept. This work is scheduled to be completed in three years’ time.
In the meantime, the chain in Germany has already changed almost a thousand stores from Dänisches Bettenlager to Jysk. “It is a huge investment. Both physically in rebuilding and updating stores, changes in the range in Germany and the whole communication and marketing task of getting our German customers used to a new name. It comes on top of a year in which we have experienced a declining turnover in Germany due to the long shutdown, so it is a big task that awaits”, concludes Bøgh.
