Since 2015, Carsten Nørgreen Weinkouff has worked continuously on improving customers’ shopping experience in JYSK’s stores. Now, in his new role as Executive Vice President, he wants to test even more to increase sales and commercial attractiveness further.

When Carsten Nørgreen Weinkouff was offered to step up as Executive Vice President in JYSK, he did not have to think long before saying yes. It was natural to take more responsibility for Retail Development, but Customer Service and Business to Business was also added to his responsibilities. Both pretty unknown areas to him.

“My mind has always been that if you get a challenge, then take it. We have very competent directors, which means that I don’t have to be a specialist throughout all details. It is my job to focus on how we can become even better and to ensure the right direction in close cooperation with our managers and directors. Last but not least, I want to do my part in securing that we continue to be curious about new opportunities and challenge the existing,” he says.

From Apprentice to Executive Vice President

Going from Apprentice to Executive Vice President and with no further education than his apprenticeship, Carsten has climbed the career ladder the oldfashioned way by showing results step by step.

He started his career as Apprentice in Intersport, a sports retail chain, before his career really took off at Bestseller, another big Danish retailer in the fashion industry. Here, he started as a warehouse employee and ended as Regional Retail Manager, combined with global responsibility for concept and visual merchandising, before joining JYSK in 2015 as Store Design Manager.

At that time, a pilot store for JYSK’s Store Concept 3.0 was already born, and soon Carsten was put in charge of the rollout as new Retail Development Director. A project that matched his interest and expertise.

”I came from Bestseller, where every small detail in the store was considered carefully, as most of the stores were placed in city centres with competitors everywhere. In JYSK, the stores of course had to look great, but the most important was to display as many products as possible. Here, I saw room for improvement,” he says.

The biggest project in his career

The designing and rollout of Store Concept 3.0 has been the biggest project in Carsten’s eight years in JYSK. The opportunity to influence both this project and develop his team keeps his job satisfaction high.

“To have an impact and contribute with what you believe in to make the business even better is a big motivation for me. To see a potential, prepare and present your ideas to management and get a “go and let’s try”, is something I really appreciate in the JYSK business approach,” he says.

The experimenting is also something that he will encourage in his new role as Executive Vice President.

“Of course, we should not try new things without doing our research first, but I would like us to dare to be bolder when we test concepts, new features and layouts. We should always be curious about what is next. At the same time, I also believe that we will benefit from making more local adjustments, than we do today, of course without losing our efficiency,” he says.