As JYSK Malta is preparing to launch its second outlet in Malta on 17th June under the brand's Store Concept 3.0 theme, which will be the newest of more than 3,000 other JYSK shops worldwide, Managing Director Marcus Bonnici is excited about how preparations are progressing, predicting that the new Qormi store “is going to be fantastic”.

Design on the store started late in 2020, and actual renovation work started in January, he reflects, after the company achieved the mammoth task of finding an outlet with enough space.

Spread over two floors Mr Bonnici, expects the kilometre square of space to offer customers inspiration for interior designing, and hopefully inspire them to make additional purchases.

“In addition to better exposure to our products, the new concept has put an emphasis on better lighting, nicer fixtures and a better product overview”, he explains.

“It will have a lot of natural wood, grey colours and parquet flooring, giving it a more homely feeling”, he adds.

Getting here has been far from easy, however, and Mr Bonnici explains some of the challenges he has faced running the brands’ Malta franchise since 2017.

When he joined the company, he reflects, “it was a much different situation than what it is today”.

“There wasn’t a lot of marketing being carried out, so locally JYSK was not really known at all. There wasn’t even a sign on the door”, he smiles. When he arrived, he made building up the brand locally a priority.

He totally overhauled the company’s social media. This took around three to four months to take effect, he says, but when it did, the impact was enormous, with both footfall and sales growing.

Now, the company has over 45,000 followers on Facebook, and over 10,000 on Instagram, he reports.

“Slowly, slowly we started building the brand. We started employing more staff, and more people on the shop floor”, he describes.

A main focus for the company was trying to get its staff to embrace JYSK’s “Scandinavian philosophy”. We try to go the extra mile in customer satisfaction and offer great service, says Mr Bonnici.

In more recent times, COVID has also naturally had a major impact on the business, and how it operates.

For one thing, the company’s quest to keep customers happy has become a lot more difficult. “In the last year, people have become a bit more touchy and more easily frustrated”, Mr Bonnici has found.

More generally, he acknowledges it was a "difficult period" for retail, but JYSK managed to overcome it thanks to Mr Bonnici's "dedicated team", he says.

Despite the COVID difficulties though, he thinks that the brand has found its feet in Malta.

“Locals, they love offers, which is good, because we have monthly offers on our range of products, which are functional and affordable. The Scandinavian design, reference to nature in terms of colour pallets, their structure and their texture, make JYSK products desirable in any home”.

“JYSK delivers a great Scandinavian offering for everyone within sleeping and living categories”, he adds, and “thousands of customers visit JYSK around the world every day, and we are only here because so many choose to shop with us”.

Returning to the new store, Mr Bonnici is not just excited about it in a professional capacity though, but also as a consumer. He explains he’s moving house soon, and that when he does, he and his wife are looking forward to visiting the new Qormi outlet.

His personal favourite products from JYSK’s broad assortment are the mattresses, which he thinks are “fantastic”. In fact on his recommendation, his in-laws also started using them, and “they love them too”.