JYSK opens its 15th store in Türkiye, when does direct investment beat franchising?

According to Capital, the store has energy-efficient lighting, neutral tones, light brown wooden flooring and inspiring living spaces. Look, these sound like small details. In a franchise, though, they depend on the partner’s budget and care. In your own store, you carry out the concept yourself.

JYSK Türkiye Country Director Fatih Tezcan says the aim is to bring JYSK’s “Scandinavian way of living, functional products and accessible pricing” to more consumers (Perakende.org). Direct investment means the brand itself decides the speed and shape of that expansion.

The store’s floor area, headcount, opening day and the district of Starcity Outlet are not in the report. The location and exact date of the Ankara stores are not clear either. So what follows compares models, not numbers.

Because every new store opens from the partner’s till, not the brand’s. The brand can enter several cities at once. In return, the brand partly gives up the final word on day-to-day running.

When the store is yours, window display, stock depth, price labels and staff training are run from one hand. Sales data flows straight to head office. The cost of that control is that every opening lands on your own balance sheet.

Let’s say your concept has not settled yet and you change something in every store. Then there is no clear system to hand to a partner, and learning in your own store is safer. Once the concept is settled, the manual is written and capital is limited, franchising starts to make sense. This is a general framework for information, not legal or financial advice.

Opening in a new city also means stretching your warehouse and delivery line. Here’s something I see again and again: a growing retailer often underestimates not the store, but the line that feeds the store. When that line gets too long, shelves empty and customers walk back out the door.

The report says two stores will open in Ankara at the same time, and Capital’s İzmir story says the Ankara opening had been planned for October 2026. Entering a new region with one store is like a trial run. Entering with two shows an intention to stay, and lets two stores share the cost of reaching a new region.

According to Ekonomi Gazetesi in November 2025, the brand aims to reach 18 stores in Türkiye by the end of 2026 and to grow its workforce from 110 to 250. The same report says the share of local sourcing is being increased. Capital notes that the İzmir store carries more than 2,000 products.

Each store’s map listing, opening hours and photos should be managed from the centre. If those listings stay with partners, a store that closes or changes hands can sit online with the wrong details for years. A brand that opens its own stores cuts that risk sharply from the start.

Every new city needs its own up-to-date store page: address, hours, directions and the featured product group. A brand entering Ankara shows up in Ankara searches through that page. Without it, people read the news, search for the store and find nothing.

Put your current store’s sales per square metre, stock turnover and sales per employee side by side. Then ask whether a new store could match them in year one. Take the numbers from your own till, not from another brand’s announcement.

Read fee structure, territorial protection, concept standards and exit terms first. Franchise relationships run within general commercial law, and the broad framework for Turkish retail is on the Ministry of Trade’s retail trade page. Verify with the official source; this is not legal or financial advice.

Start writing your store manual: opening, closing, shelf layout, returns and the complaint flow. The part you cannot write down is the part you cannot copy. We do this work with retailers through our digital consulting service. I have been looking at store systems for years, and I keep seeing growth without a manual get stuck in the same place.

Look, the growth model is only half of the decision. The other half is keeping customers after the sale, which we cover through Casper’s service point data. The rest of the agenda is on our retail page. My decision is this: if your system is not written down, grow with your own stores first, and invite a partner to the table only once it is.

If the way your store runs has not yet become a written manual, it is safer to open the second store yourself and test the system there. If the system is written down and capital is limited, a franchise can be considered; this is for information only and is not financial advice.

The report does not give a reason. The company’s statement points to the goal of reaching more consumers, and direct investment keeps that expansion under the brand’s own control.

Look at the fee structure, territorial protection, concept standards and exit terms. Verify the rules with the official source and get legal support before you sign.