In this episode of the Danish-language podcast Den Nye Standard, I’m joined by Jeppe Christensen, co-founder and CEO of Reform. We talk about his knack for spotting a need among consumers. That led him to build a business in the middle of an otherwise polarised market. He has set a new standard for kitchens that are both luxurious and affordable.
Jeppe opens the episode by briefly describing himself as a sensitive man who is driven by relationships. Those qualities have helped him put together a strong team. Holding on to the team spirit that drives Reform mattered when the company really took off. The employees have carried the culture forward, and Jeppe is grateful to be able to lean on his partner Michael, who he has run Reform with since 2014.
A gap in the market is a chance to grow
Jeppe explains how polarisation had left a gap in a large market, and how that gave him the chance to build a high-quality brand. He didn’t know much about the kitchen industry. But with passion and a desire to create, he built a culture and a story that customers and employees wanted to be part of.
From the start, Jeppe has had a big vision for Reform that reaches beyond Denmark’s borders. It has mattered to him that there was room to dream big, and Michael has given him that room. The ambition isn’t just to be the biggest kitchen company in the world, but the best. That ambition is the cornerstone of entrepreneurship and the urge to create: that there is room to develop and grow.
How do you brand big growth ambitions?
The ambition to go international takes the conversation to how you build a strong brand over the long term. For Jeppe, it has been important to be selective and say no to quick fixes that only bring in short-term earnings. Instead, he has chosen partnerships that strengthen Reform’s brand and vision.
There has also been room to dream big on the business side, Jeppe says. He believes you have to set big goals if you want to move your company forward. That’s why the growth ambition for Reform has been to build a DKK 1 billion business right from the start. The road there has followed a fixed plan, where the first goal was to show that the company could generate revenue. After that, they could focus on organic growth.
Entrepreneurship: dependence and hard choices
Building the brand and the company has been risky, though, and that brings us to the other side of the coin on the journey towards an affordable luxury brand. Jeppe has faced a number of hard choices. Being dependent on the recognition and success that come when the company hits its goals has weighed especially heavily. When family life suddenly didn’t seem to give him the same feeling, Jeppe had to face the hard realisation that it was time to scale back his work.
Reform is still growing fast, and so are Jeppe’s ambitions for the future. The dream of becoming a DKK 1 billion business isn’t many years away, Jeppe believes.