Lögberg-Heimskringla - 11.02.2005, Blaðsíða 2

2 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • Friday 11 February 2005
key to the future
Lúðvík Kritsjánsson is JYSK’s General Manager in Canada. He started in 1997, and has seen the number of outlets in the
country grow to 19. The goal is to set up about 100 stores in Canada within 10 to 12 years.
The
ln the end of January,
JYSK opened its first
store in Regina, Sas-
katchewan, and a few
more locations in Canada
will be added this year.
The company’s General
Manager in Canada,
lcelander Lúðvfk
Kristjánsson in Van-
couver, told Steinþór
Guðbjartsson what he
is doing on behalf of one
of the largest retailers in
Denmark.
Lars Larsen founded JYSK
in Denmark in 1979, and
a quarter of a century lat-
er the company operates about
1,000 bedding and home fur-
nishing stores in 18 countries.
At the end of 2004, there were
18 JYSK stores in Canada and
the plan is to double the num-
ber by next year.
They are under the owner-
ship of Jákup Jacobsen, who
also operates four stores in
Iceland (under the name Rum-
fatalagerinn), one in the Faroe
Islands and 14 in the Baltic
countries of Latvia, Lithu-
ania and Estonia. “We call this
the JYSK - Icelandic group,”
Lúðvík says and points out that
in addition there are over 500
JYSK stores in Germany, and
roughly 100 in Sweden, 100 in
Denmark, 80 in Norway, and 80
in Finland. There are also out-
lets in Poland, Austria, United
States, Greenland, Georgia and
Spain.
Opening stores in the east
JYSK has been in Canada
for nine years. There are seven
locations in British Columbia,
five in Alberta, three in Sas-
katchewan and three in Mani-
toba. “A new location will be
opened in Calgary in April and
another one in July, one in Pitt
Meadows, BC in June, and an-
other one in September that will
be our first store in Ontario, in
Windsor,” Lúðvík says, adding
that they want to get into Lon-
don or Oshawa, Ontario, after
that.
JYSK opened its first loca-
tion in Canada in Coquitlam,
BC in 1996. “When looking
for store locations at that time,
everybody focused on the east
coast of North America and
opened stores in places like
New York, New Jersey and To-
ronto,” Lúðvík recalls. “Jákup
followed closely the move of
people from Asia to North
America and thought that he
could sell these people fumiture
at a low price. To start with, he
tried to sell European-designed
furniture to North Americans
and people from Asia in North
America, but it did not work.
“Yet the fumiture business
was blooming in these years and
every day since I came aboard,
we have focused on the ordi-
nary Canadian customer. We
know that IKEA is doing well
in Canada. We are selling the
same goods for less and a lot of
times from the same factories.
Basically IKEA has paved the
way for JYSK in Canada.”
Looking at opening
100 stores
About eight years ago,
Lúðvflc decided to move
from Iceland to Montreal. At
that time he was married to
a French-Canadian woman
and he wanted their son to be
brought up on her homeground.
“A few months later, Jákup
called me to see how I was do-
ing,” Lúðvík says. He had been
working for Bónus, the larg-
est grocery retailer in Iceland,
and got to know Jákup, since in
some places Bónus and JYSK,
or Rúmfatalagerinn, are side by
side.
“We met for a few times
for a cup of coffee, and when
he heard that I had moved to
Canada he called me and asked
if I was doing something spe-
cial. ‘No,’ I answered. ‘Just sit-
ting around and enjoying the
first months of my son.’ Then
he asked: ‘Would you be inter-
ested in taking a look at a small
operation I have in Vancou-
ver?’
“I had never thought of
Vancouver, but told him that I
was willing to do this with him.
He told me he had one store in
Coquitlam and that did not help
me a bit — I could not even
pronounce the name. In short,
he bought me a ticket and we
met here in December 1997.
“We looked at the store and
he asked me what I thought.
‘Maybe a few things can been
done a little bit better,’ I said.
When at Bónus I used to seli
bananas and frozen chicken,
and now I was thinking about
selling wardrobes and chairs.
We went to a Starbucks café and
there Jákup handed me a key.
‘This is the key to the store,’
he said. ‘If you don’t take it, I
might have to close and con-
centrate on Iceland, where the
customers know us and busi-
ness is good. If you take the key
I expect you to finish this.’
“I took the key, and we are
here a few years later operating
19 stores with the goal to set up
about 100 stores in Canada in
10 to 12 years.”
During his first two years
with the company, Lúðvík did
not think about opening new
stores. “I was only working
with the concept and the impor-
tance of building up a company
based on Canadian employees,”
he says. “That should have been
done right away,” he adds, and
stresses the fact that almost all
the staff members are Cana-
dian. “You can’t build a strong
company with only foreigners
in management.”
Moving east
JYSK in Canada has
changed a lot since Lúðvík took
over. “The first few years were
very hard, but I decided to keep
going and soon found out that
this was were I wanted to be in
the future,” he says, referring to
the fact that he is now a Cana-
dian citizen.
Since the plan is to intro-
duce JYSK to eastern Canada,
Lúðvik has decided to move
to the Toronto area in the fall.
“It is important for me to be
in the area when we open our
first stores in the east, and per-
sonally it is good for me to be
closer to my son who lives in
Montreal,” Lúðvík says. Mov-
ing east makes it also easier for
him to visit Europe when need-
ed. “Hopefully, Toronto will
one day be one of Icelandair’s
destinations, and then it will be
easier to attend meetings in Ice-
land or Denmark on short no-
tice when living in the Toronto
area.”
Not only is Lúðvík working
on expanding JYSK in Canada,
he is also changing the struc-
ture of the company. “There
wiil be a west regional manager
and an east regional manager,
and West Coast and East Coast
warehouses about 300,000 tg
400,000 square feet each,” he
says.
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