Ciaron Hearns, Sales & Marketing Manager, JYSK UK & Ireland, talks about the continued focus on growing their store network, recent sustainability achievements and how logistics is a constant challenge.
Meet Ciaron
I’m based in our Dublin headoffice and head up JYSK’s UK and Ireland marketing team covering traditional marketing, social and communications strategies, alongside supporting with bolstering our retail presence with store opening activation. Ultimately my key responsibility is to champion the JYSK name and ensure JYSK is a well-known and respected brand within our market.
Recent investments?
Currently in the UK and Ireland, our key focus with investment is expanding our store network with a target of 8-10 new stores annually to boost our retail presence. We’re delighted to have just opened a brand-new store in Sheffield which is our 4th opening of the year and will be followed by our Blackburn store being fully refurbished and reopened in August.
We are also continuing the process of bringing all of our UK retailers to the latest JYSK store concept, which provides the very best shopping experience and visual merchandising to our customers. Since the beginning of this initiative in 2022, we’ve successfully transformed 6 stores and we aim to have one more additional instore rearrangement completed by the end of the year.
Future plans?
For JYSK UK & Ireland, our priority is to continue to focus on our retail success and expansion, alongside building up our market share and wider brand awareness. We know the great product and brand experience we have to offer, so the focus is on championing that message across all touch points.
Looking ahead to 2025, we have a goal to open another 8 JYSK stores across both markets and hope to have completed our initiative to update all our existing stores to the latest retail concept. With the new concepts in place, all our stores will offer enhanced visual merchandising, alongside excellent shopping experience including payment via Klarna, localised delivery services, and same-day click and collect.
What is your mission?
Our mission remains to bring the joy of Scandinavian living and sleeping to as many individuals as possible. People are at the centre of the JYSK mission; be the customers first choice when it comes to shopping for the home, but also be employees first choice when it comes to seeking careers in retail.
On sustainability, what is your business doing on this topic?
We have a number of sustainable business initiatives to support the global movement towards greener business practises, and understand our responsibility as a recognisable, international business to encourage change by leading by example.
Since 2021, we’ve been updating our packaging to remove as much unnecessary plastic as possible. In 2021, we successfully updated our packaging on bed linen and bed sheets from plastic bags to FSCTM certified paper bands which resulted in an estimated saving of 27 million plastic bags annually.
As of March 2024, the same packaging concept has now been introduced across a number of our duvet lines. This move has not only reduced plastic waste, but also streamlined our freight requirements, allowing us room for an additional 300,000 units within the existing container space.
The packaging initiative has also been seen across our distribution network, as we’ve introduced a reusable material cover for our delivery pallets, replacing a previously plastic foil, saving approx. 920,000kg of plastic annually.
Within our product assortment, we are also making updates to support our wider sustainable goals. We are now part of the Danish voluntary sector collaboration, which aims to reduce the environmental and climate footprint of the textile industry. By 2030, all garment and textiles from Danish companies will consist of at least 40% recycled materials and we are committed to reach this goal throughout our portfolio.
Increasing the amount of recycled content in the products is in general an important part of JYSK’s sustainability strategy, and the number of products that are fully or partly made from recycled materials is increasing with each new product assortment.
In March, we successfully removed up to 4.5 million aluminium caps from circulation annually, thanks to an updated design on our popular outdoor stacking chairs GUDHJEM and AIDT. The decorative aluminium foot caps have been removed, while still providing customers with a functional and quality product.
How has recent business been?
Despite difficult economic conditions witnessed in both the UK and Irish markets, we have continued to grow against market trends in the furniture and garden sector. With a snapshot of some warmer weather and timely offers in May, we witnessed our most successful month in JYSK UK trading history.
Similar to last year, we’ve seen customers being more conservative on spending, however there’s still an evident desire for soft home updates with affordable furnishings and DIY projects. Customers continue to invest in their homes and with social media playing a huge part in our everyday lives, we’re becoming more house proud than ever before.
What challenges do you currently face?
For the UK and Ireland market, our main challenge and opportunity currently is to improve and enhance our logistics and distribution arm in this territory. As announced last year, we are actively researching solutions that will enable us to reach our customers faster than before, catering to the increased demand year-on-year.
We hope in the coming years to have a well-established Ireland distribution centre that will overcome this challenge and streamline our market logistics.
Do you have any staff you would like to pay special thanks or recognition to and why?
I would like to acknowledge and give my thanks to Eamon Breen (Finance Manager) and John Keane (Retail Manager) who have both joined the business in recent months and are working tirelessly with the senior leadership Country Management Team for the JYSK UK & IE organisation as we outline our FY25 strategy, alongside Country Director Roni Tuominen and HR Manager Anastasiia Kruta who continue to provide the team with unwavering support.
Why do you think customers choose your business?
We put our customers front of mind in everything that we do, and this includes a refreshing and on-trend product assortment. Our Design and Range team work tirelessly to keep bringing sought-after, quality products to our stores and caters to ever changing customer demand in terms of trending styles, colours, and categories.
Trust and reliability are also key. We ensure that our best-selling categories and hero products are available year-round, allowing our customers to come back time and time again. For example, our garden category is available for online ordering all year, making us a reliable choice.
Lastly, our reasonable price point and offers are well known and competitively positioned within the market.
