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Flying Tiger Copenhagen
Company typePrivately held company
IndustryRetail
Founded1995 (1995) in Copenhagen, Denmark
FoundersLennart Lajboschitz (founder)
Suzanne Lajboschitz (co-founder)
Headquarters
Copenhagen
,
Denmark
Number of locations
950
Area served
Worldwide
Revenue4.274 billion DKK
OwnerZebra A/S
Websiteflyingtiger.com
Footnotes / references
[1]

Flying Tiger Copenhagen (formerly Tiger Copenhagen) is a Danish variety store chain.[2][3] Its first shop opened in Copenhagen in 1995 and the chain now has nearly 1000 shops. Its largest markets are Denmark, the UK, Italy, and Spain. Before June 2016, it operated as Tiger in most markets, as T·G·R in Sweden and Norway, and as Flying Tiger in Ireland, Japan, Belgium, and the Netherlands.[4] The chain sells a variety of items, mostly accessories and toys.[5] According to the company's founder, the company had about 39 million customers in 2014.[6] Tiger takes its name from how the Danish pronunciation of the animal name tiger (IPA: [ˈtsʰiːɐ]) sounds roughly the same as the Danish word tier (IPA: [ˈtsʰiˀɐ]), used to denote a 10 kroner coin; in the first stores in Denmark, all items cost 10 kroner.[7]

History

Logo in some countries until June 2016
Tiger shop, Copenhagen city centre
Tiger shop, Putney, London

Lennart Lajboschitz opened the first shop at Islands Brygge in Copenhagen in 1995.[4]

In 2005, the company opened its first shop in the United Kingdom in Basingstoke.[8]

In 2012, EQT Partners acquired a 70% stake in the chain Tiger via its investment in its parent company Zebra A/S.[9]

In January 2015, the company appointed former The Body Shop director Xavier Vidal as its new chief executive officer.[10] The company opened its first store in the United States in New York City in May 2015, [11][12] a 5,000-square-foot/152 mq store in Manhattan's Flatiron District.[13] In 2016, the company officially changed its name worldwide to Flying Tiger Copenhagen; it has previously used other names due to the name "Tiger" not being allowed in all markets.[14]

In November 2018, the company announced the opening of four shops in Massachusetts and planned to open 20 more locations in New England in the next few years. The CEO, Mette Maix said the format of the shop is "like a treasure hunt" by adding at least 300 random, new items each month to the shop selection.[1]

In November 2020, Flying Tiger closed all US Stores, to focus on other markets.[15]

Online shopping

Flying Tiger opened their global online shop in July 2021,[16] catering to most of Europe. The online store ships to Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Italy. Ireland, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Poland, Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Austria, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the UK.

The online store is opening the range of product for a much broader audience than the network of physical stores are catering to.[citation needed]

New products are added to the store each week.[17] Many products are limited edition and only for sale for a limited time.

Number of shops per country

Tiger shop at Amerikamura in Chūō-ku, Osaka.

Flying Tiger operates almost 1,000 shops worldwide, of which 937 are in Europe.[18]

Country Shops[19]
 Italy 129
 Spain 118
 United Kingdom 85
 Denmark 51
 France 43
 Poland 44
 Sweden 42
 Norway 35
 Japan 35
 Portugal 36
 Germany 33
 Finland 31
 Belgium 23
 Ireland 23
 South Korea 22
 Netherlands 20
 Czech Republic 17
 Austria 13
 Switzerland 15
 Greece 13
 Hungary 11
 Israel 8
 Slovakia 8
 Estonia 7
 Latvia 6
 Lithuania 6
 Cyprus 6
 Iceland 5
 Saudi Arabia 5
 Malta 3
 United Arab Emirates 2
 Indonesia 9
 Philippines 4
 Turkey 10*

Awards and recognition

In 2014, Tiger Stores Ireland won Company of the Year and Best Small Company at the Retail Excellence Ireland awards.[20] In the same year, the company received "Good design" award by Chicago Athenaeum.[21][failed verification]

References

  1. ^ a b DeAngelis, Allison (2018-11-21). "'We don't just want to be normal': Danish retailer Flying Tiger expands in Mass". Boston Business Journal. Retrieved 2018-11-26.
  2. ^ Booth, Hannah (19 July 2013). "The Tiger who came to town". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  3. ^ Wood, Zoe (30 March 2014). "Posh pound shop: Tiger sinks its claws into UK high street". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  4. ^ a b "Tiger tjente kvart milliard i 2013" (in Danish). Jyllands-Posten. Archived from the original on 2014-06-04. Retrieved 2014-06-03.
  5. ^ Tiger UK. "About us". Archived from the original on 25 January 2012. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  6. ^ Owens, Alan (9 December 2014). "Tiger confirm plans to open Limerick store". The Limerick Reader. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  7. ^ "Tiger-koncept opstod ved et tilfælde". Politiken (in Danish). Retrieved 2018-07-22.
  8. ^ Butler, Sarah (20 May 2016). "Danish retailer Tiger eating up competition on Britain's high streets". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 May 2016.
  9. ^ "EQT buys Danish Zebra's Tiger". unquote.com. 10 October 2012. Retrieved 2014-06-03.
  10. ^ Tugby, Luke (19 January 2015). "Value retailer Tiger appoints Xavier Vidal as new chief executive". Retail Week. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  11. ^ "Flying Tiger open in New York". Refinery 29. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
  12. ^ Hourihane, Ann Marie (9 December 2014). "'We hate indifference': the rise of Tiger Stores". Irish Times. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  13. ^ Xie, Jenny (17 April 2015). "6 Fast Facts About Tiger, the Company Bringing Super Affordable Danish Home Decor to America". Curbed. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  14. ^ Van Looveren, Yoni (2016-04-18). "Flying Tiger chooses a new international name". RetailDetail EU. Retrieved 2023-04-04.
  15. ^ "Flying Tiger Copenhagen Closing All Stores". 16 October 2020.
  16. ^ "Flying Tiger launches online store". 28 September 2021.
  17. ^ "Flying Tiger Copenhagen FAQ".
  18. ^ "Flying Tiger Copenhagen: latest news, analysis and trading updates". Retail Week. Retrieved 2022-03-23.
  19. ^ "Financial Statement for Flying Tiger Copemhagen 2021" (PDF).
  20. ^ "The Punt: Tiger burning bright with two awards". Irish Independent. 13 November 2014. Retrieved 27 April 2015.
  21. ^ "The Tea Bird - 2014". Chicago Athenaeum. Retrieved 28 April 2015.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Flying Tiger Copenhagen.
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