Can Juntoo’s 23rd showroom turn Aalst into its next growth market?

Belgian furniture chain Juntoo opened its 23rd showroom in Aalst on 4 September, establishing a new 1,500-square-metre store at Gentsesteenweg 412. The company’s own showroom directory confirms that the branch is trading, including on Sundays, while Het Nieuwsblad identifies it as the chain’s 23rd Belgian location. The opening gives residents of Aalst and the surrounding part of East Flanders another large-format furniture destination and marks the latest step in a wider expansion by the Belgian chain.

For local consumers, the immediate significance is practical: sofas, tables, chairs, fabrics and materials can now be examined in person without travelling to Juntoo branches such as Lochristi, Sint-Niklaas or Sint-Martens-Latem. That matters in furniture retail, where purchases are relatively expensive and customers may want to test comfort, compare finishes and obtain advice before ordering. Juntoo presents the Aalst site as a place for personal guidance as well as display, although the company has not disclosed the investment, expected turnover or number of permanent jobs associated with the opening.

The branch also reveals something about Juntoo’s ambitions. RetailDetail reported in April that the business had 22 stores, enjoyed high prompted brand recognition in Flanders and was seeking to evolve from a retail formula into a fuller interiors brand. Marketing director Ellen Vandeleene framed the next phase as one of sharper differentiation: in the company’s account, Juntoo should increasingly be recognised for its own design identity rather than simply as a place that sells furniture. Aalst brings the network to the next reported milestone, while retaining the spacious showroom model used at several other locations.

That strategy has roots in the transformation of the former Overstock business. RetailDetail reported in 2023 that the group had separated its indoor and outdoor activities into Juntoo and Exterioo, invested in online sales and operated an 80,000-square-metre warehouse in the Port of Ghent. Founder Jan Ollevier had bought out minority investors in the Beliving holding at that stage. The resulting model combines e-commerce and centralised logistics with showrooms where customers can experience products physically — a hybrid approach that many bulky-goods retailers use because delivery does not entirely replace inspection and advice.

Expansion nevertheless does not guarantee easy growth. Statbel’s 2024 household-budget survey found that Belgian households devoted 5.0% of expenditure to furniture, household equipment and maintenance products, with the share slightly higher in Flanders at 5.3%. Those figures establish a meaningful market, but they do not show how much will flow to Juntoo or whether households will bring purchases forward. Furniture remains a discretionary category exposed to housing activity, borrowing costs and consumer confidence. The Aalst showroom is therefore both a vote of confidence and a commercial test.

The Belgian chain’s perspective is that a larger physical footprint supports brand-building and personal service. A more cautious reading comes from household economics: consumers comparing costly, long-lived products may visit a showroom without ordering immediately, particularly when wider living costs constrain budgets. Neither perspective can yet be declared the winner because Juntoo has released no branch-level targets or early sales data.

Aalst was also opening a new central meeting centre for young people during the same period, but that is a separate municipal development rather than part of Juntoo’s investment. The city says DERUIT, in the Bert van Hoorickstraat, brings Team Jeugd, OverKop and Broeikas together so young people can enter without an appointment for information, support or conversation. The coincidence illustrates two distinct forms of local investment — commercial expansion along a major retail road and public-facing youth services nearer the centre — without establishing any operational connection between them.

What follows will be measured less by the opening ceremony than by whether Aalst can attract sustained regional demand and help Juntoo progress towards its stated growth ambitions. The most useful next disclosures would be staffing, investment and sales expectations, followed by evidence on whether the new branch draws customers from neighbouring towns or mainly redistributes visits within Juntoo’s existing East Flemish network.