Mr. DIY Bangladesh opens its first store

The Bangladeshi operations of the Malaysian home goods retailing giant has finally started with the opening of its maiden branch in Dhaka. The company, which has taken up space at the Polwel Carnation Shopping Centre Uttara, north of the capital, announced the soft launch of the new store on its website on 4 March.

The opening "marks the beginning of a journey with much ahead," Kazi Muzahidul Islam, senior marketing executive at Mr. DIY Bangladesh, said in a LinkedIn post.

Bangladesh is the twelfth global market, tenth Asian market and the second south Asian market of Mr. DIY after India. It was expected to start operating in late 2023 after it was learned that the discounter was quietly setting up in the country in the early part of the year. The country with 169.4 million people is believed to have the demographics that align with the way Mr. DIY does business, which is anchored on its motto of "always low prices".

"Bangladesh would be a sensible market to target as consumers there are more price-sensitive and less quality-conscious than consumers would be in [developed markets]," says Angus Mackintosh, CrossAsean Research founder and analyst.

Rapidly growing its presence is one of the growth pillars of Mr. DIY. Apart from Malaysia and Bangladesh, Mr. DIY is also present in Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, Cambodia, India, Brunei, Vietnam, Turkey and Spain. It also has plans to enter more European markets.