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~ Ranpak ~

SØSTRENE GRENE:

FROM LOCAL STORE

TO CROSS-

BORDER RETAIL

CHAIN

Text: Frank Calviño // Photos: Søstrene Grene
Born as a family-run business created by a wife-and-husband
team, but presented to the world through the silhouette of two
iconic sisters, Anna and Clara, Søstrene Grene—the Grene Sisters in Denmark—is living

proof that a smart, committed, and focused company can turn from a local store to a global
operation in only ten years. This is their story!

ounded in Aarhus, Denmark, in 1973 as a a couple. The sisters are a story that we have used to build
family company by Inger Grene and Knud around the entire concept of the brand. The sisters, Anna
FCresten Vaupell Olsen, Søstrene Grene has and Clara, are the characters of Søstrene Grene. They are
grown into a cross-border retail operation. With actually based on real persons from the family, but they were
close to 250 stores in 15 different countries inside not involved in the company,” says Claus
Europe, the company has experienced exponential
growth in the last ten years. Today we talked with “It was a family company for many, many years. And about
Claus Tjærby, Chief Business Development Officer ten years ago, we started an expansion journey. Today we
of the company. operate around 250 stores in 15 countries, physical stores.
We currently have webshops in eight countries also.”
Claus has experienced the growth process of Søstrene Grene
very closely. His role in the company has led him into a wide A few years ago, Søstrene Grene was in more
spectrum of responsibilities: from the supply chain logistics countries, Spain, for example. What happened?
of both physical and online stores to the supervision of “We took the decision, a few years back, to focus our efforts
sustainability and master planning processes. on fewer markets. Because we had few stores in a lot of
markets, and it takes a lot of resources. So we try to focus
With him, we will see the challenges, surprises, and thought our efforts on fewer markets with far more stores. It is more
processes that are the building blocks for the company’s profitable and efficient. So we decided to close a few of the
success. And perhaps, we will also learn a few invaluable markets that had a low number of stores.”
lessons in cross-border commerce. Let’s begin!
It makes all the sense in the world. And on the
Ten years of quick expansion e-commerce front, when did you start? Was it due to
the COVID-19 situation that you decided to jump
How did Søstrene Grene begin? What was the online?
original concept? “No, it was not because of COVID-19. It’s been a long
“Søstrene Grene is a fairly old company, almost 50 years old, project for us. We launched our e-commerce site, our
and it was founded in 1973 as a brick-and-mortar retailer by webshop, at the end of March 2020. Just in the middle of

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