Torben Mauritsen, the Dane whose Normal shops make billions in Prague

In mid-August, the Danish discount chain Normal will open its first stores in Prague — in the Flora shopping centre and in Galerie Butovice. Behind the chain's success is entrepreneur Torben Østergaard Mauritsen, who thirteen years ago came up with the concept of a shop where a customer comes in for toothpaste and leaves with five extra items — and enjoys it.

The idea came to Mauritsen, who already had business experience as the founder of the “Scandinavian Amazon”, Wupti. Together with his business partner Bo Ewald Christensen, he opened the first Normal store that same year in the Danish town of Silkeborg, betting on well-known branded goods — cosmetics, household chemicals, sweets and homeware — sold cheaply, with a constantly changing range.

The launch proved a success: within two years the chain had 25 stores and more than 130 employees, and a year after that the number tripled again. A key role in this growth was played by Anders Holch Povlsen, one of the richest Danes and owner of the fashion group Bestseller (Jack & Jones, Vero Moda), who bought into the company's capital about a year after it was founded and gradually became its majority owner. This gave Normal not just money but also powerful backing for expansion abroad, which began in 2017 with Norway.

Today the chain operates in more than a dozen European countries, including Sweden, the Netherlands, France, Finland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Ireland, and, as of this year, Austria and Slovakia. Last year Normal earned 15.2 billion Danish kroner (about 50 billion crowns), of which almost 3 billion crowns was net profit — revenue growth of nearly a third compared with the year before.

The secret to its success lies in a constantly refreshed range: each store offers around five thousand products, with more than a hundred new items added every week. Part of the range stays stable, part changes depending on trends and whatever is currently popular on social media — a customer never quite knows what they'll find inside, and that's the main magic of the business model Mauritsen dreamed up.