House of Fraser (Binns), Darlington (1 Mar 2011)

It’s not one of my most well-read posts, but some of you may remember my blog from last March about the disappointing state of the toilet facilities in Darlington’s landmark House of Fraser (Binns) store.

While at first glance it might seem a slightly frivolous topic, the post was making a serious point about the importance of retailers’ attention to detail, and ensuring that all aspects of the store experience – especially in a premium department store – meet customer expectations and convey an appropriately upmarket image for the brand. While the Middlesbrough store’s attractive facilities do just that, I couldn’t help feeling that Darlington’s were rather letting the side down.

Happily, I’m pleased to report that action has been taken – Revisiting the store yesterday, I noticed that the old grimy floor covering has been replaced - a quick fix, for sure, but one that makes a big and positive difference until a more comprehensive refurbishment can be carried out.

...how it looked before (1 Mar 2011)

...and the improved version (5 Jan 2012)

Of course, whether the improvement is due to my inf-loo-ence is impossible to say, but either way it’s very welcome.

I don’t propose Soult’s Retail Loo to become a regular feature, but if you do wish to flag the frightful or salute the shining, you may feel free, as always, to add your comment below.

Isabel Macdonald outside her new store

Tamworth’s new John Lewis at Home opened its doors on Wednesday (12 October), eight months after I broke the news of its impending arrival.

The 42,000 sq ft shop at the edge-of-town Ventura Park is John Lewis’s sixth in the ‘at Home’ format, following the opening of stores in Poole, Croydon, Swindon (which I recently visited), Tunbridge Wells and Chester. Further John Lewis at Home shops are set to open in Ashford, Newbury and Chichester during 2012, while the retailer’s new Exeter store – originally announced as an ‘at Home’ shop – will, as I recently noted, be the first of a new ‘flexible’ department store format.

Cutting the ribbon at John Lewis Tamworth

While the ‘at Home’ stores focus on furniture, homewares, furnishing accessories, electricals and home technology, John Lewis’s strength as a multichannel retailer – highlighted in my recent Bdaily column – means that the full John Lewis range is available to Tamworth shoppers via ‘Click and Collect’. Products can be ordered online or instore by 7pm, and picked up from the store after 2pm the next day.

In a recent tweet, I suggested that John Lewis’s arrival in Tamworth was the biggest single retail event to happen in the town for decades – probably since the opening of the Ankerside shopping centre, in 1980, transformed the town centre’s retail landscape. The fact that there is now a store called ‘John Lewis Tamworth’ is remarkable enough in itself, but the 218 jobs that have been created by the £7m store – 200 of which are brand-new John Lewis Partners – also make it one of the biggest single retail investments that Tamworth has ever seen.

One of the Partners to have transferred from elsewhere is the new branch manager, Isabel Macdonald, whose career with the company goes back nine years – including seven years in the Reading store before her most recent stint as operations manager at Solihull. Hours after the store’s opening, Isabel took a few moments out to chat to me about getting the store ready for launch; the excitement of the opening morning; how John Lewis is seeking to establish itself as part of the Tamworth community; and how it is a “dream come true” to be branch manager of a store just twenty miles from where she was born and grew up.

Opening preparations

John Lewis at Home, Tamworth (3 Sep 2011)

John Lewis Tamworth’s transformation from a steel frame when I first visited in June to a fully-clad building in September and an operational store now is pretty impressive, and the efficiency of the process to train new Partners and stock the store is no less remarkable.

Isabel told me that her own work at Tamworth started seven weeks before opening, working with her team to ensure that the store had the “best-trained” Partners who would “give customers the service they would expect from John Lewis.” Meanwhile, she revealed that the process of filling the store with £3m of stock had taken just nine days to complete.

Three hours after the store opened at 9am, Isabel reported that cars had been “flooding in” to the 311-space car park, and that there had been 100 customers waiting in the queue for the doors to open – including one keen gentleman who had arrived at 6am. Early customer comments had been “lovely”, and the 80-seater instore café was also gaining positive feedback.

Shoppers enter John Lewis at Home Tamworth

Given Ventura Park’s reputation for traffic chaos, I was bound to ask Isabel for her view on how the roads had coped in those first few hours. While it was obviously early days, she suggested that the recent improvements to the road layout and traffic control – initiated as a direct result of John Lewis’s arrival and the nearby B&Q-anchored Cardinal Point development – seemed to be working. Clearly it will be something to keep an eye on, however; as Isabel noted, “We are keen to work with retailers and the council to make sure that Ventura Park is the most convenient place to shop for customers in the West Midlands.”

Range

A month ago, Retail Week reported that John Lewis was planning “tweaks” to the ‘at Home’ format in response to a performance that was “a little bit below what we expected”, and I raised this with Isabel.

While Retail Week suggested that John Lewis at Home stores will start to stock some lower-priced items – such as pictures, mirrors and rugs – Isabel was clear that the retailer’s longstanding ‘Never Knowingly Undersold’ promise stands it in good stead: “What customers are saying is that they want to know they are getting value from John Lewis – that’s not necessarily being ‘cheap’, but offering value in terms of quality, price and service.” She gave the example of how the Tamworth store is offering a new, fully bespoke furnishing fabric service, where curtains can be ordered in custom sizes.

Birmingham

Not long after news emerged of Tamworth being the first John Lewis at Home in the Midlands, the Partnership announced, back in February, that a new full-line, 250,000 sq ft department store would open in Birmingham in 2014 – just 20 miles or 30 minutes’ drive away. With John Lewis already present in Solihull, Leicester and Nottingham, is this not a lot of stores in a relatively small area?

Seemingly not. Citing John Lewis’s investment in both online and shops, Isabel was clear that “the Tamworth and Birmingham shops have distinct catchments, and there is enough room for both to trade successfully”. While the Birmingham store is about having a presence in a major city centre, Tamworth – and the ‘at Home’ format generally – is “all about convenience”. The transport connections to Ventura Park seem to have been a big factor in choosing that location, with Isabel noting that the new Tamworth store will also serve towns such as Lichfield and Sutton Coldfield that have previously been outside a John Lewis catchment.

Town centre impact 

The latest CACI Retail Footprint map flagged Ventura Park as the UK’s tenth biggest retail park by expenditure; the arrival of John Lewis, with a new B&Q, Maplin and Next to follow, will surely propel it up the rankings. So, what does all this mean for Tamworth town centre – a location that has already rather struggled to define itself as major retailers like WHSmith and New Look have decamped to the edge of town?

Isabel was clear that John Lewis aims to work alongside the local retail community and to help “make Tamworth the best possible destination”. She observed that data following previous ‘at Home’ openings has demonstrated a “John Lewis effect for the whole area”, as shoppers take the opportunity to check out other attractions in those locations. The positive impact of the 200 new jobs will also filter through into the local economy, she argued, with many of the new Partners living in the Tamworth area.

Apart from the footfall and economic benefits, Isabel noted that her store is also working with three local charities – Tamworth Volunteer Centre, Rosie’s Helping Hands, and Bancroft Community Association – who took part in the opening-day ribbon-cutting ceremony and will each benefit from a donation from the retailer’s Community Matters scheme.

For all Tamworth town centre’s flaws – most notably its underwhelming market and lack of upmarket stores – there is, as I’ve observed before, much for visitors to enjoy. Visitors recently flocked to the Staffordshire Hoard exhibition at Tamworth Castle; the UltraSound Music Festival attracted a younger crowd to enjoy artists such as Tinie Tempah and The Wanted; and the town’s colourful floral displays this summer were, as always, among the best anywhere. The town centre also has some interesting and distinctive shops – notably the Irish fashion retaiiler, Dunnes; the independent Tamworth Co-op department store; and plenty of appealing independents.

John Lewis at Home is different to many of the other tenants at Ventura Park in that there was never any question of it being able to, or wanting to, open in Tamworth town centre. Ultimately, I would argue, it’s a format that works best on a retail park, and that was attracted to Tamworth specifically because of Ventura Park’s popularity and location.

However, if Isabel is right, and even a small proportion of John Lewis’s visitors check out what the town centre has to offer, the arrival in Tamworth of one of retail’s biggest names may indeed be cause for wider optimism about the town centre’s future.

John Lewis fascia

As the vast Westfield Stratford City opens its doors today, it’s little wonder that most of Twitter’s retail commentators seem to have decamped to east London. With 300 stores (though not yet all open) and a floor area of 1.9m sq ft (177,000 sqm), the opening of “Europe’s largest urban shopping centre” would be a noteworthy occasion at any time.

As it is, the mall is the only major shopping centre to open in the UK this year. While most major new retail developments, such as Trinity Leeds or Sheffield’s Sevenstone, have been delayed as a result of the economic downturn, Westfield Stratford City has been driven by its unique status as the gateway to London’s Olympic Park.

The site intended for Sheffield's new John Lewis (18 Aug 2011)

For John Lewis, whose 260,000 sq ft store (with 155,000 sq ft of selling space) anchors Westfield Stratford City, this stalling of new shopping centre developments has put something of a brake on its plans for new full-line department stores. Stratford City is the first one to open since Cardiff’s two years ago, while there’s unlikely to be another one before Birmingham opens in 2014. New stores that should have been opening this year – such as those in Sheffield and Portsmouth – are still several years off, assuming they happen at all.

Sheffield's existing John Lewis in Barker's Pool (18 Aug 2011)

John Lewis’s response to the development hold-ups has been to introduce new, smaller formats that will work in a wider range of locations – such as the ‘At Home’ concept that I blogged about previously – as well as continuing to invest in upgrading its existing store estate. While in the Midlands and South over the last few weeks, I was able to take a look at some of what John Lewis is up to.

John Lewis Reading's Broad Street frontage (19 Aug 2011)

Down in Berkshire, John Lewis Reading is one of the chain’s longest established stores, and is currently benefiting from a £19m makeover. Occupying a prime spot in Broad Street, the town’s main shopping thoroughfare, the store was extended in 1985 but traces its origins, as Heelas, back to 1855. The John Lewis Partnership acquired the shop in 1953, though the John Lewis fascia was only adopted in 2001.

When I visited last month, work on the second phase of the comprehensive two-stage revamp was well underway. New features of the store include a recently opened new-concept technology department, where modern interior finishes and computers on long tables create a more hands-on, Apple Store-style experience than has usually been the case at John Lewis.

John Lewis at Home, Swindon (11 Sep 2011)

Forty miles or so down the M4, the £7m John Lewis at Home in Swindon represents a relatively quick and cheap way for the retailer to circumvent development delays, and to plug the gap in coverage between its existing department stores in Reading and Bristol.

At first glance, the store’s location on the slightly dowdy Mannington Retail Park – close to an existing Carpetright, Allied Carpets and a closed-down Matalan Clearance shop – doesn’t seem especially promising, and the smaller lettable units (currently empty) that form part of the new John Lewis block bring to mind the never-occupied stores adjoining Gateshead’s ill-fated M&S Lifestore/ILVA.

Fortunately, if the busyness of the store last Sunday afternoon is anything to go by, Swindon’s John Lewis should enjoy a much more positive future. At 39,000 sq ft of selling space, the store is barely a quarter of the size of the Stratford City shop, but its range of furniture, homewares, electricals and technology, spread over two floors, seemed to compare favourably with that offered by my local JL department store in Newcastle. Prominent terminals allow customers to browse and order from the wider John Lewis range, including categories like fashion, beauty and nursery that are missing from the ‘at Home’ format.

The store itself is bright and easy to navigate, and the John Lewis Partners that I encountered were friendly and keen to engage – a positive sign as the company continues to expand so rapidly. In fact, the only slight disappointment was the rather small café, which feels more like a Waitrose instore coffee shop than the more extensive restaurant offer normally found in John Lewis department stores.

John Lewis at Home, Tamworth (3 Sep 2011)

Café quibble aside, this all bodes well for the sixth John Lewis at Home store, on Tamworth’s Ventura Retail Park, which is due to open on 12 October (following the fifth, in Chester, on 28 September). Still only a steel frame when I was there in June, the store had gained its cladding, glazing and signage by the time I returned ten days ago.

Tamworth's John Lewis dominates the view from the nearby Asda (3 Sep 2011)

Though similar in size to the Swindon store, the Tamworth shop’s location – on the UK’s tenth biggest retail park by expenditure (according to CACI Retail Footprint data), and the town’s main access road to the A5 – is much better. Where Swindon’s John Lewis needs to work as a destination in its own right – which it seems to be doing – the Tamworth store dominates the view from all over the retail park, and is likely to benefit from much more passing trade as shoppers head to the nearby Sainsbury’s, Asda, M&S or multitude of other big-name stores.

Finally, one site that was supposed to house a John Lewis at Home store – but now isn’t, quite – is the former home of Debenhams in Exeter’s Sidwell Street.

Traces of the 'Debenhams' lettering are still visible (6 Sep 2011)

Nearly a year ago, John Lewis announced plans to invest £8.5m in its first town centre ‘at Home’ store, bringing back into use the landmark 1960s tower block that Debenhams vacated, in 2007, upon the opening of its new store at the nearby Princesshay development.

New Debenhams at Princesshay, Exeter (6 Sep 2011)

Instead, the company announced in July that the Exeter shop would be the first of a new ‘flexible department store concept’, occuping between 65,000 and 100,000 sq ft – larger than at ‘at Home’ store, but not as big as a traditional John Lewis department store. The range, however, will cover all John Lewis’s categories, offering “an edited collection of products across fashion, home and electronics, in an inspiring and contemporary setting”, complemented by the chain’s online operation and the ability to order items not held instore.

Work underway at John Lewis Exeter (6 Sep 2011)

The Exeter store has a planned opening date of autumn 2012, and work appeared to be well advanced when I visited last week. A major part of the scheme involves raising the single-storey entrance pavilion to the height of the adjoining four-storey slab, creating a prominent glazed frontage to the corner of Sidwell Street and Paris Street.

The existing building, it has to be said, is not Exeter’s prettiest, but there’s no disputing the way it dominates the city’s skyline and the view along the main High Street. Fortunately, 3D renders of the enlarged store show a more comprehensive revamp of the building’s exterior than had previously been planned.

I’m not clear how Debenhams feels about a major competitor opening up in its former premises, particularly as both Princesshay and the John Lewis site are owned by Land Securities. The argument, however, would be that John Lewis’s arrival will provide a significant boost to retail in Exeter as a whole, drawing in shoppers who would previously have had to travel to the JL store at Bristol’s Cribbs Causeway.

John Lewis Bristol (18 May 2010). Photograph by Mark Leaver

CACI currently ranks Plymouth (at #26 in the UK, with annual expenditure of £760m) as the South West’s second biggest retail centre after Bristol, just ahead of Exeter (at #30 with £710m), but I’d be surprised if the benefits from John Lewis don’t lift Exeter above its Devon rival.

With John Lewis having “identified at least ten locations across the UK which could support these bespoke department stores”, and further expansion planned for the ‘at Home’ format, new John Lewis stores look likely to pop up all over the country in the next few years – helping the chain to reach more of those customers who, it believes, would like to be able to access a John Lewis shop.

The challenge, however, will be ensuring that rapid expansion doesn’t compromise the high standards of training and customer service for which John Lewis is rightly renowned; and that increasing ubiquity doesn’t undermine the very cachet that has made John Lewis so popular for so long.

Newcastle's TJ Hughes (8 Aug 2011)

There was good news for Newcastle city centre earlier this week, with the announcement that the TJ Hughes store in Grainger Street had been sold, preventing the loss of 76 jobs. However, the collapsed department store chain’s Middlesbrough branch is one of eight that will close down for good by Thursday next week (18 August), leaving a large hole in the town’s Captain Cook Square shopping centre.

The Newcastle store and another in Widnes have been bought by Lewis’s Home Retail, a company owned by The Benross Group – a home and garden wholesaler that is already one of TJ Hughes’ major suppliers. The deal brings the total number of TJ’s sites acquired by Lewis’s to six, following the purchase of stores in Liverpool, Glasgow, Eastbourne and Sheffield – as well as the TJ Hughes brand – at the start of August.

Lewis’s Home Retail acquired the rights to the iconic Lewis’s brand only last month, following the sale of assets owned by the collapsed Vergo Retail chain. However, Benross’ MD Anil Juneja has confirmed that the acquired stores will retain their existing TJ Hughes fascias with a view to building the chain back up again over time.

Lewis’s, meanwhile, is set to be revived separately, starting with a retail park store in Bury. The submitted plans for the ‘Lewis’s Home’ store suggest that while the relaunched chain will focus on homewares rather than a full department store offer, the familiar blue and white Lewis’s logo (below) is poised to make a comeback.

Revived Lewis's Home logo

The sale of the Newcastle TJ Hughes store avoids the headache of a large empty unit in a slightly off-centre pitch within Newcastle city centre. Covering three floors and with a gross area of 91,000 sq ft (8,500 sqm), the unit is one of the city’s largest outside of Eldon Square and Northumberland Street, and its vacancy would most likely have seen the space being divided up.

TJ Hughes has traded from the purpose-built unit since 2002, but the location is associated with two of Newcastle’s most well-loved department store names: Bainbridge (now John Lewis), which expanded across the site from 1838 to 1976 before relocating to Eldon Square; and Binns (House of Fraser), which occupied the site between 1977 and 1995. Most of the site was demolished and redeveloped following Binns’ departure, but apart from not having a frontage to Market Street, today’s TJ Hughes has a broadly similar footprint to its predecessor.

TJ Hughes, Newcastle (13 Aug 2011)

Interestingly, of the six TJ Hughes sites acquired by Lewis’s, three have a House of Fraser connection. As well as Newcastle, the stores in Sheffield and Eastbourne are both ex-House of Fraser sites that TJ Hughes acquired in 1997. The Liverpool site is the original TJ Hughes flagship in London Road; Glasgow’s Trongate store is a former C&A; and the Widnes shop occupies a unit in the modern Green Oaks Shopping Centre.

Former Woolworths (now TJ Hughes), Westfield Derby (23 Dec 2010)

Indeed, over the years TJ Hughes has played an important role in mopping up large-format space that other retailers have left behind. Most recently, it has acquired a number of high-profile former Woolworths sites, including in Belfast, Derby, Hanley, Southend, Walsall and Nuneaton.

Former Woolworths (now TJ Hughes), Nuneaton (24 Aug 2010)

When I visited Nuneaton in August last year, work was underway to transform the town’s former Woolworths into a TJ Hughes; now, after less than ten months of trading, it will be closing this coming Sunday (14 August). In towns like Nuneaton – which already lost its Marks & Spencer store earlier this year – filling the former Woolworths site a second time may not be an easy task.

TJ Hughes, Sunderland (7 Sep 2009)

With six TJ Hughes stores saved, and 30 set to close over the next week, the future of the remaining 21 stores in the estate – including the Sunderland branch – is still in doubt. There’s a possibility that Benross may snap up one or two more, but its purchase of the TJ Hughes brand – ruling out any other retailers trading TJ’s stores under the existing fascia – suggests that there is little chance of more stores being acquired as going concerns.

A more likely scenario is that retailers such as BHS, H&M, Wilkinson, Marks & Spencer, Primark and Debenhams will snap up the best sites once they become vacant. The site in upmarket Lichfield, for example, may appeal to the rapidly expanding Beales or to M&S, which already has a successful Simply Food store in the city.

TJ Hughes, Lichfield (19 Mar 2010)

For both Middlesbrough and Sunderland, however, the challenge will be to find large retailers that aren’t already represented in those locations. Of the two, Middlesbrough is arguably the better unit, anchoring the modern Captain Cook Square shopping centre close to the prime Linthorpe Road thoroughfare; Sunderland’s, in High Street West, is in a fairly central location close to The Bridges shopping centre, but suffers from being an older, less attractive property that hasn’t been much improved since it housed a branch of Littlewoods.

With both Middlesbrough and Sunderland already home to almost all the likely candidates – including BHS, H&M, Debenhams, M&S, TK Maxx, Primark, Wilkinson and Next – it will be interesting to see who else, if anyone, steps up to fill the gaps.

Not what you expect in an upmarket department store

Apologies for the Richard Whiteley-style headline and the rather gruesome photograph, but if Mary Portas was looking for another retail-related programme idea she could do worse than turn her attention to customer toilet facilities – celebrating the good and exposing the horrible.

Customer loos are a staple of most department stores, and a necessity for those that have a restaurant or café. In the context of shops’ facilities increasingly taking the place of those that local councils once provided, many retailers do an admirable job.

As you would expect, John Lewis’s toilets are usually spotless – resplendent with upmarket Dyson hand driers, and showing the attention to detail and superb customer service that has underpinned the recent success of the Partnership’s business. Given the high footfall, the big four supermarkets also do a pretty good job of providing facilities that are clean, pleasant and well equipped – the same qualities that you expect to find on the supermarket salesfloor.

Alas, not all shops’ toilet facilities are, quite literally, as sparkling, particularly where stores are in older buildings or in need of a refit more generally. The example above – photographed yesterday – looks like a dodgy backstreet loo, but in fact it’s the gents’ customer toilets in House of Fraser in Darlington, serving both the restaurant and the wider store.

Let’s be clear – the state of a store’s toilets alone probably isn’t going to put a customer off going there to shop. However, grimy, unmodernised facilities aren’t what you expect to find in a department store that positions itself at the premium end of the market. By all means invest in celebrating the relaunch of Biba – but don’t forget the small, yet important, details that can impact negatively on your brand.

John Lewis logo

No, don’t choke on your cornflakes… that’s a serious question.

My interest was piqued last month when the Tamworth Herald ran a story under the headline ”Striking design’ of unit to be built next to Herald offices’, on the town’s ever-growing Ventura Retail Park.

In it, the piece gave a few more details about what the new unit would be like, describing it as “similar in size to [Ventura's] Marks and Spencer, ASDA and Sainsbury’s” and “one of the more dominant outlets on the retail park.” It added that “while no details of which retailer will move into the building have been revealed, the building’s ‘striking’ design was unveiled last month.”

M&S at Ventura Park, Tamworth (24 Dec 2009)

This immediately got me thinking. After all, there aren’t many retailers, besides John Lewis and Best Buy, who are currently opening massive, ‘strikingly’ designed stores on retail parks. B&Q was another possibility, but the same edition of the Herald had revealed that the DIY retailer was already going to be opening a new store behind Sainsbury’s, at nearby Cardinal Point, alongside a new Next and a branch of Maplin.

Publicly available planning applications are often a good source of extra information, but it’s taken me until now to check out the application for the development in question (0648/2010) – which was submitted at the end of November and approved in January. It seems that a development of the size proposed was actually already approved for this site in 2008, so the application was for a ‘variation of conditions’, with revised plans and elevations, rather than an entirely new proposal.

I was curious to see the ‘striking’ design of the building, so took a look at the elevation drawings attached to the application. Here’s a screenshot (click image to view in larger size):

Screenshot of elevation drawings

Hmmm… a large building with lots of double-height glazing, grey cladding and white lettering. Where have I seen that before? Let’s do a Google Image Search for ‘John Lewis at Home’… (again, click to see it a larger size)

Google Image search for 'John Lewis at Home' (16 Feb 2011)

What do you reckon? In the event that the new store isn’t going to be John Lewis, it’s certainly doing its very best to resemble one.

The idea of ‘John Lewis Tamworth’ may sound far-fetched to begin with – after all, the town is not known for attracting more upmarket retailers, and has a town centre that has become increasingly value-focused. However, John Lewis’s new ‘at Home’ format makes the prospect quite plausible.

Largely based on out-of-town retail parks, four such stores have opened to date – in Poole, Croydon, Swindon and Tunbridge Wells – with two more planned for Exeter (on a city centre site that used to be Debenhams) and Chester. Each John Lewis at Home offers the retailer’s full range of  furniture, furnishing accessories, electricals and home technology, though items from other departments – including fashion, beauty and nursery – can be ordered instore for home delivery or next-day collection.

If John Lewis is looking to plug the gap between its Solihull, Leicester and Nottingham stores, Tamworth’s sprawling and bustling Ventura Retail Park – which attracts visitors from all across the Midlands thanks to its strong offer and easy connections to the motorway network – begins to make good sense as a location.

Of course, two other important debates – what the continued expansion of Ventura Retail Park means for local traffic congestion and for Tamworth town centre – must not be neglected, and key to this is making it easier for Ventura visitors to access the town centre’s attractions.

Still, if John Lewis were to open in Tamworth, that would be rather a fantastic coup, wouldn’t it?

John Lewis Oxford Street, London

Given how long it’s been since the weekly trading figures for John Lewis department stores last recorded a year-on-year fall in sales, it’s little wonder that the 2.2% sales drop announced today seems to be causing a few jitters. 

On the back of this month’s VAT increase and an apparent “astonishing” plunge in consumer confidence, it’s inevitable that any sign of a wobble in trading at the UK’s retail bellweather will catch the eye of commentators. We’ll have to wait for future weeks’ figures to see whether this fall is merely, as John Lewis suggests, a weather-skewed blip, or if it does mark the beginning of something more unpleasant. 

John Lewis Leicester

For the half year as a whole, however – which ends with next week’s figures – it’s hard to argue that a 10% year-on-year rise in sales is anything but impressive, even if the stellar rise in online sales (38.9% up year on year) does to some extent mask a comparatively less strong performance from John Lewis’s shops. Of those, the half-year performances at Cambridge (+9.4%), Leicester (+8.8%) and Oxford Street (+8.1%) are the most improved.

Thinking about the John Lewis sales figures brought to mind my third ever blog post – a whole 170 posts ago – written back at the height of the recession in July 2009 when weakened retailers, post-Woolies, were still dropping like flies. It’s worth placing today’s 2.2% John Lewis sales drop in the context of the trading picture that I described back then. By way of reminder, here’s some of what I wrote 18 months ago:

Giving a picture of slightly longer-term trends, the comparisons given for the current half-year, rather than just the last week, tend to be more insightful.

These remind us just how challenging John Lewis’s trading was between February and April – even after what is now 13 successive weeks of positive figures compared to 2008, Cambridge is still the only physical store to have enjoyed better sales (up 1.5%) over the current 24-week period than it did during the same stretch a year ago.

In contrast, it’s interesting that John Lewis’s worst performing store over the last 24 weeks has been John Lewis Bristol at the out-of-town Mall at Cribbs Causeway, where sales are down a whole 12.5% compared to last year.

Comparing figures for that half-year with the most recent one show just how much things have improved. Cambridge’s recent +9.4% performance is clearly much better than the +1.5% that I wrote about in July 2009, while Bristol – down 12.5% year on year back then – is currently registering a sales fall of only 0.6% for the current half year. Of course, the flipside is that these comparisons remind us how bad things could yet get, if all the worst fears of a double-dip recession are realised.

John Lewis Bristol. Photograph by Mark Leaver

While Bristol was the weakest performing John Lewis store in early 2009, it’s interesting that current half year figures award that slightly dubious status to Newcastle. Sales at the former Bainbridge are down 3.5% compared to a year ago, with Liverpool (-1.3%) the only other store to record a sales decrease of more than 1%.

However, just as I observed back then that the Bristol store’s figures were undoubtedly impacted by the recent opening of Cabot Circus, one must imagine that the opening of Newcastle’s Debenhams-anchored St Andrew’s Way, in February last year, has had a similar effect on the John Lewis up here. In the same way as Bristol’s figures have now smoothed out, it will be interesting to see what the JL weekly stats for Newcastle look like once the opening of the Eldon Square extension is no longer skewing the year-on-year comparisons.

Even with the overall boost in sales and footfall that the Eldon Square extension has surely given Newcastle city centre, it was always likely that there would be some cannibalisation of existing stores. However, the apparent impact of Debenhams’ opening raises interesting questions about how far Newcastle could support any more upmarket department stores, with House of Fraser, Selfridges and Harvey Nichols all having been linked to the city at various points in the last twenty years.

Maybe we should just be content with our John Lewis, Fenwick and Debenhams – after all, since the closure of Joplings last year, it is still two more department stores than Sunderland has…

Former Woolworths (now Sports Direct), Stafford (30 Sep 2010)

The more former Woolworths stores I blog about, the more predictable it gets that I’ll be mentioning now-familiar discount names such as B&M Bargains, Home Bargains, Poundland or Sports Direct. 

Previously in Staffordshire, I’ve reported on the new occupants of Tamworth’s old Woolworths stores in the town centre (now Home Bargains) and at Ventura Park, and twice visited the old Woolies in Burton’s Cooper’s Square mall – still empty when I returned last month.  

Old Market Hall, Rugeley (30 Sep 2010)

Back in September I was able to mop up a few more old Woolworths stores in Staffordshire, kicking off with the historic market town of Rugeley. Despite spending my childhood in Tamworth, barely 15 miles away, I’d never paid a proper visit to Rugeley before. Though the dreary bus station barely leaves a good initial impression, Rugeley’s compact town centre is quite pleasant, with more interesting buildings – including the gorgeous old Market Hall – than you might expect. 

Former Woolworths (now Peacocks), Rugeley (30 Sep 2010)

Rugeley’s old Woolworths in Lower Brook Street (store #586) – pictured here in its former guise - is right at the heart of the town centre, and has been occupied by the fashion retailer Peacocks since early last year. 

Up the road, shopping in the county town of Stafford is centred around the attractive, pedestrianised Gaolgate Street, where I was pleased to see a Co-op department store still going strong. 

Co-op department store, Stafford (30 Sep 2010)

Stafford’s Co-op is owned by the Midlands Co-operative Society, which is now the second largest retail Co-op in the country (after the Co-operative Group), and has maintained a significant non-food operation at the same time as other co-ops have closed down all their department stores. 

The Stafford store’s viability is surely helped by its prominent location, a ‘Stafford Department Store’ brand that cannily emphasises its localness (seemingly a Midland’s Co-op trait, as I noted previously that the Coalville store adopts a similar approach), and the absence of any department store competition in the town. 

Though the nearby indoor mall – the Guildhall Shopping Centre – hosts more than 40 shops, I was struck by its curious lack of a major anchor store, the nearest thing being the large but oddly laid-out JJB store on the first floor. I know Debenhams is perhaps becoming too ubiquitous across the UK, but the Guildhall did feel to me like a shopping centre missing a Debenhams. 

Former Woolworths (now Sports Direct), Stafford (30 Sep 2010)

At the other end of the town, the open-air Gaolgate Place shopping precinct is very much based around a discount offer, and this is where Stafford’s former Woolworths (store #320) can be found. Sports Direct is the new occupant, though only on a short lease judging from the seemingly temporary signs stuck over the original Woolworths ones.

Market Place, Cannock (30 Sep 2010)

The nearby town of Cannock was another place that I’d never visited before. Though the part-covered Cannock Shopping Centre lacks character, I liked the busy and appealing Market Place, which had the feel of being the town’s real heart.

Former Woolworths (now Poundland), Cannock (30 Sep 2010)

Facing the Market Place, Cannock’s old Woolies (store #609) is yet another site that has been picked up by Poundland. As in Scarborough, it seems that not everyone was happy about Poundland taking over one of the town’s largest units, though the one million sales registered in the shop’s first three months would seem to tell a different story.

Rear of former Woolworths (now Poundland), Cannock (30 Sep 2010)

I previously mentioned Lichfield when the URL for Newcastle’s Monument Mall shopping centre was erroneously pointing at the site for Lichfield’s Three Spires. I’ve been to Lichfield many times before, and its very attractive city centre – packed with quaint streets and lovely buildings – always makes for an enjoyable visit.

Former Woolworths (now B&M Bargains), Lichfield (30 Sep 2010)

Unfortunately, Lichfield’s old Woolworths store (#376) is not one of the city centre’s most attractive buildings, but the arrival of B&M Bargains in 2009 at least ensured that it wasn’t empty for very long.

Rear of former Woolworths (now B&M Bargains), Lichfield (19 Mar 2010)

The more modern Three Spires shopping centre houses Lichfield’s only department store, TJ Hughes, though the city is set to gain a Debenhams if the delayed Friarsgate development ever gets off the ground. The latest design changes to the £100m scheme – reflecting the “changing market conditions” – are set to go on show to the public later this month, which perhaps bodes well for work finally getting underway before the current expiration of the planning consent in December next year.

In the coming months, any movement on mothballed retailed schemes such as Friarsgate will certainly be an important indicator of whether – and how quickly – the economy and the commercial property market is recovering after its last couple of years in the doldrums.

Lewis's Grotto 2010

With the collapse of Lewis’s and Robbs owner Vergo Retail being one of the year’s major stories at Soult’s Retail View, it seems fitting to mark the festive season with a warming good news story that has emerged from the retailer’s ashes.

For 130 years, generations of locals had visited Santa in his magical grotto at Lewis’s department store in Liverpool, but it seemed that the institution of Lewis’s Grotto would end with the closure of the store that housed it.

However, in a Wellworths- and Hope-type move, the former Lewis’s Grotto manager Mike Done bought the grotto when the store closed in May of this year. As a result, Lewis’s Grotto was able to reopen last month in its new home – the Rapid department store in Williamson Square, housed on the fourth floor of the old George Henry Lee building that John Lewis vacated following its 2008 move to the new Liverpool One development.

Lewis's Grotto 2010

Lewis’s Grotto is believed to be the oldest Santa’s grotto in the world, having been founded by David Lewis in his Liverpool department store in 1879. The first grotto was called the Christmas Fairyland, reportedly inspired by the art exhibitions held at Paris’s Le Bon Marché department store. David Lewis saw such exhibits as a way of drawing people in to his store, with the basement apparently filled with water and gondolas to create a ‘mini Venice’.

Fast forward to 2010 and today’s grotto is just as ambitious in its own way, covering around 7,000 sq ft, and featuring 100 animations and about 80,000 twinkling lights – all created by the reunited in-house display and marketing teams from the closed-down Lewis’s.

Lewis's Grotto 2010

Lewis’s may have closed its doors for good, but it’s positive that at least one piece of the store’s heritage is set to live on in Liverpool in future years – and just like Lewis’s Grotto, Soult’s Retail View is looking forward to coming back in 2011. In the meantime, thank you to everyone who has read, commented or otherwise contributed to this blog over the last twelve months – and Merry Christmas!

Thank you to Lewis’s enthusiast and former employee Ben Selwood for supplying the information and photographs used in this post.

Former Woolworths, Horley (4 Sep 2010)

During the summer, I’ve built up a veritable stack of photos of old Woolworths stores, from all kinds of places across the UK – not that you’d necessarily realise from my recent blogging output. That’s the trouble of fine weather – it’s just so tempting to head off and photograph interesting things, rather than staying inside and writing about them.

However, now that winter’s well on the way, and the weather is less amenable for tearing up and down the country, I plan that my blog posts will finally catch up with my camera…

One old Woolies that I’ve walked past lots of times without realising is the one in Horley, in Surrey. Several summers in recent years we have stayed in a friendly B&B in the town before flying out to some eastern European destination from nearby Gatwick Airport. Since the last time we were there, in 2007, a lot has happened, however – Woolworths has vanished from the high street, and my retail interests have blossomed.

Collingwood Batchellor's department store in Horley (4 Sep 2010)

Still, even as a consumer I’ve always had a soft spot for Horley’s town centre – it’s compact and attractive, and has a surprisingly strong retail offer given the town’s relatively small (but, admittedly, affluent) population of just over 20,000 people. Highlights include the delightful Collingwood Batchellor department store in Victoria Road and, just opposite, the unusually large and impressive branch of The Original Factory Shop, housed in a former engine shed.

The town can also claim to be the location of my first ever Waitrose experience, back in 2001 – long before the retailer had made it up here to the North East, and when the most northerly outpost of the Waitrose empire was still Newark-on-Trent. Needless to say, I’ve enjoyed quite a few Waitrose experiences in more recent years.

Horley's attractive High Street (4 Sep 2010)

Back to Woolies though, and it’s interesting that despite Horley’s present-day buzz and prosperity, the town’s Woolworths store (#545), opened in May 1934, was one of the first to close, back in the mid-1970s. Today, the property houses a branch of Boots. However, not withstanding the slightly questionnable blue first-floor windows, the building is in excellent condition, and is the epitome of a purpose-built 1930s Woolworths store – even more than thirty years after the retailer moved out.

Former Woolworths, Crawley (24 Oct 2009). Photograph by Stacey Harris

Interestingly, the Woolies history site, 100thBirthday.co.uk, suggests that the opening of a huge Woolworths store in nearby Crawley (#768), in 1958 – just five miles away – had a negative impact on the Horley store’s trade. The Crawley store, incidentally, lasted until Woolworths’ collapse, and is now – like so many others – occupied by Poundland.

Whereas Poundlands seem to be popping up everywhere, one distinctive feature of Horley’s retail scene is the presence of George Davies’ GIVe collection within Collingwood Batchellor. Launched only in September last year, the label’s fortunes so far have been mixed, with GIVe’s standalone stores all apparently slated for closure. Indeed, the Regent Street flagship, as well as the stores at Meadowhall and Kingston upon Thames, have already gone.

However, the concession model – operating nationwide within Beales department stores, and in just a handful of other independents – has reportedly been much more successful. Certainly, Collingwood Batchellor had an attractive GIVe window display, and the range looked a good fit for the department store’s focus on quality, and for its older and well-heeled clientele.

With GIVe seemingly concentrating on selling through independent department stores, it will be interesting to see whether the collection is introduced into Beales’ new acquisitions – including the former Westgate department store in Rochdale (now renamed as Whitakers), and, of course, the transformed Robbs department store up here in Hexham.

Thank you to Stacey Harris for the shot of the former Woolworths in Crawley, which is © Copyright Stacey Harris, and licensed for re-use under the Creative Commons Licence.

Former Woolworths, Bishop Auckland (6 Feb 2010)

When I blogged about the remaining vacant Woolies stores in the North East a few days ago, I’d failed to spot that yet another is about to be reoccupied, with Boyes – the iconic northern variety retailer – announced as the new tenant of Bishop Auckland’s former Woolworths. The store is set to open by Christmas, and will create 30 jobs.

As I noted in October, Boyes had expressed an interest in former Woolies sites in the North East as early as March last year. However, this is the first opening to come to fruition in the region, after Boyes had apparently worked “with the receivers for Woolworths… for more than a year.”

Boyes in Newton Aycliffe (12 Mar 2010)

The Bishop Auckland store will add to Boyes’ 11 existing outlets across County Durham and Teesside, including nearby sites in Newton Aycliffe and Darlington.

Boyes' existing Darlington store (12 Mar 2010)

I imagine that Boyes’ established shops in the south of the region – also including Billingham, Redcar, Middlesbrough, Stockton, Barnard Castle, Chester-le-Street and Consett – have already up mopped up some of the demand for homewares, stationery, haberdashery and other household items that would previously have been shared with those towns’ now-closed Woolies stores.

Boyes in Barnard Castle (6 Mar 2010)

Boyes, Redcar (17 Sep 2009)

There are also Boyes branches in Yarm and Guisborough, where Woolworths has never (as far as I’m aware) had a presence, and where Boyes is very much an anchor retailer within the town.

Boyes’ existing strength in the North East, coupled with the dearth of available ex-Woolies sites, suggests that Bishop Auckland may be the first and last such acquisition – exactly 100 years after Boyes first began to expand beyond its original store in Scarborough.

In Peterlee and Wallsend, the old Woolies premises are probably too small for Boyes, while Hartlepool’s two-storey unit is more than likely too big. Though the flagship Boyes in Scarborough, opened in 1881, is spread over four large floors and is essentially a department store – complete with food hall and restaurant – other shops in the chain are rarely as extensive.

Boyes' flagship store in Scarborough (16 Aug 2010)

That really leaves the north of the region – Northumberland and Tyne & Wear – where Boyes is yet to establish a presence. It came close, in 2008, to opening up in the former Kwik Save in Prudhoe’s Front Street, but ultimately lost out on that site to The Original Factory Shop.

The former Kwik Save in Prudhoe - originally targeted by Boyes (10 Apr 2010)

All the old Woolies sites in Northumberland are already taken (though Berwick’s former Kwik Save could be worth a look), but Tyneside has a couple of possibilities.

Newcastle’s Clayton Street Woolworths would be perfect as a Boyes, and would give a real boost to that end of town. Boyes’ existing presence in Middlesbrough, in the Dundas shopping centre, has shown that its model works in large urban centres as well as in small towns.

Boyes, Dundas Arcade, Middlesbrough (17 Sep 2009)

However, my vote would be for Boyes to snap up the old Woolworths store in Gateshead High Street. While work on the redevelopment of Gateshead town centre appeared to have stalled, I was understandably pessimistic about the prospects of any retailer wanting to take over the former Woolies site.

However, with the Get Carter car park finally biting the dust, and firm plans having been submitted for what will replace it, the situation looks more promising. Even in the shorter term, Tesco’s plans to open a temporary store in the old Kwik Save – directly opposite the former Woolies – while its current store is demolished could be a useful generator of footfall to the High Street.

Though it has Wilkinson and Home Bargains, Gateshead has missed having a department-type store since the Co-op closed in 2006. Boyes might be just what is needed to plug that gap.

Improvements to the store frontage underway (19 Aug 2010)

Less than three months after acquiring Robbs of Hexham, indie department store operator Beales has wasted no time at all in sprucing up the store and its ranges ahead of next month’s official relaunch.

I’ve visited the store on three occasions since the takeover – most recently a week ago – and it has been a hive of makeover activity each time. New wooden flooring and white ceramic tiles have replaced the mangy old carpets, while the entire shop seems to be getting a fresh coat of paint – crisp white in the stair areas and black for the displays, but with various bold colours used to delineate different departments. With the store’s windows cleared of the clutter that was blocking views in or out, the overall effect of the changes is to create a shop that feels airy, bright and modern.

A sign of change (19 Aug 2010)

The layout and merchandising is also getting a welcome overhaul. The new cosmetics hall, for example, is taking shape at the front of the store, and the menswear department has enjoyed a welcome refresh of its ranges. Beales’ new own-brand quality formalwear, Broadbents & Boothroyds, is in place, while the addition of some younger and trendier menswear names is another positive change.

Job opportunities (19 Aug 2010)

In addition to Wallis, more quality concessions also look to be on the way, with Robbs’ window advertising jobs at Jacques Vert, Jane Shilton, Joules and Estee Lauder, as well as for a new hair salon.

New signage awaited (19 Aug 2010)

Black paint in, blue paint out (19 Aug 2010)

As I hoped, there are also signs that the outside of the store is getting some attention, with black paintwork already replacing the faded blue. One can only assume that new white-on-black signage will follow shortly, though I haven’t noticed any planning application for advertising consent as yet.

All in all, it’s quite a transformation already for a store that seemed destined for closure barely three months ago.

Christmas decoration

Today’s BBC News story about Selfridges’ imminent opening of its Christmas shop made me wonder whether I should just dust off and recycle my blog post from a year ago.

Back then, I expressed incredulity about why anyone would wish to purchase baubles “adorned with Union flags” or ‘We Love England’ slogans a whole 137 days before Christmas. Clearly I knew nothing, however, with the BBC article revealing that Selfridges’ “festive shop sold more than 1,000 baubles during the first week of trading after opening on 8 August.”

The consequence of that success is that this year’s festive store at Selfridges is opening a whole six days earlier than a year ago. So, on August 6th, when most of us are still thinking about summer holidays and barbecues, those who are so inclined can head over to Selfridges to snap up Christmas tree decorations.

Geraldine James, Selfridges Christmas Shop’s buying manager, seems to have sussed what the logical progession will be of Christmas decoration shopping getting earlier and earlier, claiming in the article that she “can see a time when we offer a capsule Christmas collection throughout the year.”

My initial reaction to this prospect was one of horror, but then it brought to mind those all-year Christmas shops that I’ve encountered on my travels, such as The Christmas Emporium in Pitlochry. Presumably there must be a market for Christmas decorations throughout the year, or such shops wouldn’t exist.

It seems pretty clear, however, that this move towards year-round Christmas retailing isn’t really targeted at the British public, but is more about capturing the attention – and credit cards – of overseas tourists who may wish, for whatever reason, to take a Christmas-themed souvenir back home with them.

In this context, you might conclude that Selfridges’ potential all-year ‘capsule collection’ doesn’t seem such a crazy idea. On the other hand, in selling Christmas decorations to overseas tourists in August, I think Selfridges needs to be slightly careful not to evoke too much ridicule among its UK customers.

What do you think? Is this merely a harmless and throwaway story during the media’s summer silly season? Or is there something slightly unsettling – or even cynical – about a retailer launching its Christmas shop in August?

Looking forward, as always, to your thoughts.

Job ad for Wallis in Hexham

Delivering on its promise to bring quality concessions to its recently acquired Robbs of Hexham store, it seems that Beales has already signed up the Arcadia-owned womenswear brand Wallis.

A job ad has gone live today^{[broken link removed]}, advertising the “fantastic opportunity for Sales Advisers and Senior Sales Advisers to join our brand new store in Hexham Beales.” There are no details of when the new Wallis will open, but my expectation is that it will be ready in time for the relaunch of Robbs’ women’s fashion department, scheduled for September 1st.

Wallis logo

Hopefully the first of many such signings, Wallis coming to Robbs is clearly a positive step. Traditionally focused on classicwear for 25–45 year olds within the ABC1C2 bracket, Wallis is among the more upmarket of Arcadia’s brands, and sits well with Beales’ intention to broaden Robbs’ appeal.

Owned by Arcadia since 1999, Wallis has about 300 UK stores, as well as 60 in the Republic of Ireland and another 65 overseas. Of the UK shops, roughly half are concessions, including a growing number in Arcadia’s own Bhs stores, as well as a significant number within high-end department stores.

Wallis store within Bhs in Middlesbrough

Tyneside is already well served by Wallis – there are branches in Debenhams at Eldon Square and MetroCentre, in Fenwick in Newcastle, in Bhs at South Shields, and a standalone shop in Monument Mall – and there are also several stores on Teesside. This will, however, be the retailer’s first store in Northumberland.

Standalone Wallis store at Monument Mall in Newcastle

Having attracted Wallis, it will be interesting to see whether Beales can bring any other Arcadia names to Hexham. Dorothy Perkins has a store in Fore Street already, but Miss Selfridge – already mentioned as a possibility – would help to address Robb’s traditional weakness in young women’s fashion.

Similarly, bringing in a Burton concession would do something to remedy the chronic lack of menswear choices in Hexham town centre. With options presently limited to Robbs itself, Tesco Extra, and a disappointingly small range in Marks & Spencer, the demand is surely there.

Image from 'Scotland's Shops' book, courtesy of Historic Scotland

One of the nice things about running my own architecture subject gateway, Sapling.info, is that I get the opportunity to read about plenty of interesting buildings and places. 

Earlier this week I paid a visit to the attractive and information-packed website of Historic Scotland, ahead of updating Sapling.info’s review of that site. While there, I was excited to see that the organisation has just published ‘Scotland’s Shops’, a 199-page book that examines the architectural history of shops in Scotland. My enthusiasm will hardly surprise you – regular readers of Soult’s Retail View will know by now that retail history is one of the areas that most interests me, even if my knowledge and coverage of Scotland, E&M aside, has been rather thin to date.

Image from 'Scotland's Shops' book, courtesy of Historic Scotland

‘Scotland’s Shops’ certainly sounds like the kind of book that will be appearing on my bookcase before too long, though I was a little surprised to see that it’s not yet listed on Amazon.co.uk. It seems like I may have to have a go at ordering from Historic Scotland’s own web store instead.

The book itself has quite an interesting story behind it, being written by Dr Lindsay Lennie – an expert on the conservation of historic shops – as part of a three-year Research Fellowship funded by Historic Scotland.

Image from 'Scotland's Shops' book, courtesy of Historic Scotland

The resulting publication apparently “explains the chronological history of the design of shops in Scotland, gives a technical background to the elements and materials used in their construction, as well as advice on their conservation, and also includes a gazetteer of retail buildings around Scotland.” In doing so, it “celebrates the history of Scotland’s retail architecture in a timeline from medieval markets to the post-war period”, featuring shops “from all around Scotland from Lerwick to Stranraer.”

Image from 'Scotland's Shops' book, courtesy of Historic Scotland

Fiona Hyslop, the Scottish Minister for Culture, formally launched the book last week and rightly flagged up the importance of historic shops on various levels – whether for the stories underlying them, for the celebration of craftsmanship, or simply for their architectural delight:

“Traditional shops and shop fronts form the heart of many high streets across Scotland and play an important part in our history.  Many long established family businesses and new owners who have inherited a shop with original tiling, shelving or a cast iron frontage are proud of the significance of these shops and want to ensure their survival for future generations to appreciate.

“Traditional Scottish building materials are also vital to the conservation and maintenance of our built heritage.  Many towns and cities have their own distinctive and recognisable shop front styles. The fact that so many of them have survived across the country is testament to the quality and durability of the materials used to construct them and the skill with which they were used.  

“Our shops  form the economic and social building blocks of our town centres – they are woven into the social fabric of our towns and communities. Their architecture and conservation are of great importance in order to retain town centres that are individual, appealing and meaningful.”

Given the book’s celebration of Scottishness and individuality, there’s both logic and incongruity in it being launched at Jenners department store in Edinburgh’s Princes Street.

Jenners' Grand Hall. Photograph by Steve F

Operating from that site since 1838, it’s true that Jenners remains one of Scotland’s most iconic and well-known shops, with its baronial exterior and celebrated Grand Hall making it a must-see for any visitor to Edinburgh. On the other hand, House of Fraser’s purchase of Jenners in 2005 has meant that the store is no longer particularly individual, nor especially Scottish – House of Fraser may have been founded in Glasgow, but its corporate HQ has long been based in London.

I haven’t visited Jenners in Princes Street since the HoF takeover, though the much smaller branch at Loch Lomond Shores in Balloch, which I visited in 2008, did strike me as a rather odd combination of twee Scottish souvenirs against a backdrop of HoF own-brand and designer labels.

Jenners, Edinburgh. Photograph by Richard Webb

This battle to define what Jenners is and stands for – trying to reconcile its quirky, independent heritage with the shinier (but arguably less interesting) personality of its corporate parent – seems to continually vex retail commentators. Retail Week’s John Ryan, for example, earlier this year described Jenners in Princes Street as “failing to measure up” – “it may have the brands, the point of sale and the aspiration to match its sister store in Glasgow, but… it’s a rabbit warren [and] difficult to find your way around.” Even Mary Portas, the BBC’s Queen of Shops, has previously lamented what she sees as the store’s loss of individuality under HoF’s ownership:

“Jenners’ internal design is absolutely stunning, but it feels like House of Fraser got a hold of it and it’s just ended up with a slightly hybrid shop instead of one that is still ‘Jenners’. Now it doesn’t know what it is – Arthur or Martha.”

Perhaps more critical, however, is if the feelings of the retail gurus are shared by actual shoppers. Judging from the numerous comments on the Mary Portas article – “just another House of Fraser”, according to one reader, or “just Frasers with a higher price tag” by another – you get the impression that they could well be.

Scotland’s shops might indeed, as Fiona Hyslop contends, be “woven into the social fabric of our towns and communities.” However, lose what makes a store cherished in the first place and there’s always a danger that the stitching will start to come undone.

Thank you to Richard Webb and Steve F for the shots of Jenners. The photographs are © Copyright Richard Webb and © Copyright Steve F respectively, and both licensed for re-use under the Creative Commons Licence.

Out with the old, in with the new at Robbs (12 Jun 2010)

With just over a week now passed since Beales’ takeover of Robbs of Hexham was confirmed, details of what the welcome change of ownership might mean for the historic 192-year-old store are starting to become clearer.   

First up, it’s worth remarking that Beales buying Robbs is truly the the best possible outcome that could have been hoped for. After years of unsettledness, Robbs is now in the hands of a long-established company with a good track record in running market town department stores, and whose own fortunes are on the up – under the leadership of new Chief Executive Tony Brown – after a wobble a few years ago. Crucially, Robbs’ future now seems more secure than at any time since Merchant Retail’s ownership between 1987 and 2005.

Remarkably, Robbs is also – as yet – the only store from David Thompson’s 19-strong Vergo chain to have been saved following the company’s collapse into administration. There is no news on the future of Joplings in Sunderland or any of the other shops in the south west and east of England, despite Chris Dawson – owner of The Range – confirming that he has “bid on some of Vergo Retail’s stock and stores”.   

This week’s Hexham Courant talks excitedly of a “New era of investment for Robbs”, and the Beales era certainly gives lots of cause for optimism – not just for Robbs, but in reinforcing Hexham’s overall position as a successful retail centre. So, what do we know so far? 

1) The Robbs name is staying: Keeping the Robbs name is not a big surprise – when Beales has acquired stores before, it has tended to retain the local brands where one exists. Robbs will, however, be marketed as ‘part of the Beales family of stores’, as seen already in Beales’ half-page ad in this week’s Hexham Courant. 

Robbs ad in Hexham Courant, 12 June 2010

Despite the retention of the Robbs name, I hope that one of the first things Beales does is to replace the store’s tired and faded exterior signage – after many years of use, it is surely a much paler shade of blue than was ever intended. Adopting a tasteful white on black fascia – similar to that used at Beales’ recently opened Fareham store – will not only improve the store’s appearance significantly, but it will also be a powerful and very visible statement of Beales’ intent to invest and improve.

Robbs' Fore Street frontage

2) The post office and food hall are staying put too: While one or two Beales stores sell gift food, none to date have had a food hall; however, Robbs’ food hall has been cited in the past as the most profitable part of the business, so keeping and improving it does make good sense. The Courant quotes Beales boss Tony Brown as saying “I spent 19 years with Asda – I can do food!” 

Robbs sign facing Hallgate (30 May 2010)

3) Beales has signed a 15-year lease with the building’s owners, Buccleuch Group: This is significant – it is a much longer lease than Vergo Retail ever signed, and indicates that Beales wil be investing for the longer term, seeing Robbs through to its 200th birthday and beyond. Certainly, Buccleuch’s previous plans to redevelop the site – which made more sense before the economic downturn, and when Robbs’ ability to recover from its previous administration was still unclear – look now to have been definitively shelved. 

Robbs' Priestpopple frontage (12 Jun 2010)

4) The store will see a two-year programme of refurbishment, starting immediately: The store will relaunch officially on 1 September, by which time there will have been a first phase of refurbishment – including a new cosmetics hall – and the introduction of new, more upmarket brands and concessions. The Courant has Tony Brown praising John Lewis and Fenwick, and stating that Beales will “try to get that type of quality and brand-mix” for Robbs. 

Talk of bringing in younger brands to run alongside the ‘classic’ fashions that have dominated Robbs in recent years makes good sense, and reflects the shift that Beales has recently been implementing across its store estate. It’s important, of course, to still cater for the grey pound, but it’s right that Robbs also develops its appeal among younger shoppers – after all, getting younger people into the habit of shopping at Robbs will be key to building the store’s long-term success. 

5) Robbs will open on Sundays for the first time? Merely speculation on my part, but given that all Beales’ existing shops are open on Sundays, it’s reasonable to expect that the Hexham store will follow suit in due course. 

Beales logo

Paying a visit to Robbs yesterday was quite an interesting experience – the ‘Store Closing’ signs have obviously gone, replaced by ones that proclaim ‘Under New Management’. The shop is also in the midst of a ‘Clearance Event’ – in other words, Beales getting rid of all the random stock that it has inherited for its £250,000. 

Meanwhile, there were plenty of signs, just eight days into its ownership, of Beales bringing in its own stock, with large areas of the shopfloor piled high with boxes marked as ‘internal transfers’ from other stores in the group – Lego from Bolton, china from Horsham and kitchenware from Yeovil. Given the challenge ahead – with Beales needing to carry out clearing, restocking and refurbishment, all at the same time – it will be fascinating to see the store as it evolves and improves over the coming months.

Robbs - under new management (12 Jun 2010)

Incidentally, regarding that £250,000 figure, one or two people have asked me whether that seems a really cheap price for Beales to have paid for Robbs. In my view, it does seem quite a low figure for “all assets, brand, intellectual property and employees” – i.e. the Robbs business – given that it includes the Robbs name, all the fixtures and fittings, and whatever stock was left in the store at the time of purchase. Obviously, the building itself – owned by Buccleuch Group – isn’t part of the deal.

Of course, the flipside is that Robbs will require a lot of investment to bring the store environment up to scratch, is currently a loss-making business, and employs 76 members of staff – all risks and responsibilities that Beales is taking on. However, if Beales can turn Robbs around, I would expect it to recoup its investment fairly quickly.

After all, go back to the last financial year before David Thompson first bought Robbs and Joplings (under his Owen Owen vehicle, in 2004), and you see that the two stores made a combined profit of £2m. Even three years later, when the three-store-strong Owen Owen business collapsed in 2007, Robbs was supposedly still profitable. With the experience and purchasing power that comes from a portfolio of 13 stores, and as a member of the Associated Independent Stores buying group, I would fully expect Beales to turn Robbs back to profit within a couple of years.

After all, there’s tremendous goodwill that still exists among local people, hence the fate of Robbs being front page news on the Courant for the last six weeks on the trot. I suspect that almost all shoppers in Hexham want Robbs to be a success, but in recent months the previous management risked alienating even the most ardent supporters. Indeed, commenting on Vergo’s tenure, even Beales’ Tony Brown has described “the way this store has been managed over the last three years [as] almost sinful, with a lack of investment and under-stocking two of the main reasons for its lack of success”.

As I noted before, however, Beales was barely in a position itself to have bought Robbs in 2007, given its own travails at the time. The irony is that while Vergo gave Robbs three of the least satisfying and successful years of its long history, that stay of execution back in 2007 ensured that the business was still around to be saved, by a much stronger and growing Beales, in 2010.

Looking forward then, the prospects for Robbs in the coming years are surely much rosier than those of the recent past. Beales’ plans promise to keep and celebrate all that’s well-loved about the business already, while also bringing in some much-needed fresh ideas. There is also, finally, the investment to back those ideas up, and to give Hexham back the vibrant, quality department store that it’s been missing for so long.

Robbs of Hexham store

Just announced this morning – independent department store operator Beales has acquired Robbs of Hexham from MCR, the administrator of Vergo Retail, for £250,000.

Sarah Bell, Partner of MCR, officially announced the news:

“Following an effective administration process, we are delighted to confirm the sale of such an iconic store in the region. It’s positive news for both the 76 Company employees whose jobs will be directly transferred to the new owners, as well as the local community.”

MCR’s statement confirms that Beales has “purchased Robbs as a going concern including all assets, brand, intellectual property and employees”.

In a statement, Beales has said:

“As part of the Company’s plans to grow, Beale PLC is pleased to announce that it has acquired the Department Store of Robbs of Hexham from MCR the Administrator of Vergo Retail Limited (in administration), through its primary trading subsidiary of J E Beale plc, for £250,000. The demographics of Hexham and the trading history of Robbs align well with those of Beales. The transaction increases the Company’s portfolio to twelve stores. The Board are delighted the Company has been able to acquire the Robbs store taking it out of administration and securing its future.”

Read the Hexham Courant coverage here.

UPDATE, 13 June 2010: For a more detailed assessment of Beales’ purchase of Robbs see ‘Robbs is saved – so what happens now?’

Closing down sale at Robbs in Hexham (30 May 2010)

As the uncertainty over the future of the Vergo Retail store empire continues, potential suitors for some of the stores are starting to emerge. Here are the latest happenings…

In Liverpool’s Ranelagh Street, Lewis’s department store closed for good at the end of trade yesterday, bringing an end to a 154-year-old institution. Its closure had already been announced in February, prior to Vergo’s administration, to allow for the redevelopment of the iconic Lewis’s building. I hope to cover the history of Lewis’s in more detail in a future blog.

Of the remaining stores, the administrators MCR have already closed one, in Dovercourt, while closing down procedures are now underway at the other 18. However, MCR have confirmed that “discussions are ongoing with a number of different parties wishing to acquire part or all of the business”. As far as I understand, firm closure dates are yet to be announced for any of the remaining stores; certainly, when I walked past Robbs in Hexham yesterday it had the ubiquitous ‘Store Closing’ signs up, but not yet the dreaded countdown announcing the number of days left before closure. 

Coverage in the Hexham Courant, 28 May 2010

Following the earlier news that department store operator Beales had lodged “formal notice of interest” in buying Robbs, the front page of Friday’s Hexham Courant reports that the deal “could soon be clinched”. Beales’ Chief Executive Tony Brown has apparently visited Robbs, and is quoted as saying that his company is “continuing to pursue” its interest, and is “still in talks with both the landlord and the administrators”. For the third week in a row, there’s also a quote from someone called Graham Soult… I guess he’d better enjoy the exposure while it lasts!

The potential Beales takeover has also been noted by Drapers, writing that “independent department store chain Beales has been linked to a number of the higher profile stores such as Robbs of Hexham and Derrys in Plymouth.” 

Store closing banner at Robbs (30 May 2010)

On that subject, The Herald newspaper in Plymouth quotes local entrepreneur Chris Dawson – owner of The Range chain of home, garden and leisure stores – as saying that he is “interested in a few of the stores, parts of the group and all of the stock”, the implication being that he may step in to take over Derrys in Plymouth or – perhaps more likely, given The Range’s lack of a fashion offer – some of the South West-based Homemaker stores.

Described by Retail Week as “colourful”, Dawson’s record of buying up the stock of collapsed retailers such as Empire Direct and MFI is not to everyone’s taste, recognised in him jokingly styling himself as the “grim reaper”. However, it’s difficult to argue with Dawson’s success as a retail entrepreneur, with The Range now expanded to 45 stores (up from 33 in February last year) including its first in the North East, recently opened up in the former Big W unit in Portrack Lane, Stockton-on-Tees.

As yet, I’m not aware of any particular rumours involving Vergo’s stores in the east of England. However, the Norwich Evening News has reported^{[broken link removed]} on how Vergo’s collapse has affected one local couple who had paid £900 for bedroom furniture from the Norwich department store, but who may not now receive their order or their money back.

They are, unfortunately, far from alone – the Evening News’s story very much echoes an email that I received from Tony, asking what he should do about the £500 pram that his daughter had ordered and paid for from Derrys in Plymouth, but not received.

As I suggested to Derek, the best place to start if you are an outstanding customer of Vergo Retail is to visit the Vergo page of the MCR website, which includes advice on how to proceed, including a downloadable ‘Outstanding Orders Form’.

Newgate Street frontage, Debenhams Newcastle

Though I’d had a wander around several times before, today was the first occasion that I’d actually bought something from Newcastle’s recently opened Debenhams store. However, if the good quality customer service that I received is the norm, it gives me every incentive to go back.

I was looking for a nice shirt and tie, and, having decided (for once) to try somewhere a bit more upmarket than TJ Hughes, found myself in the Debenhams menswear department. This is on the ground floor of the store, one level down from the St Andrew’s Way mall, and with an entrance on to Newgate Street.

Like the rest of the shop, the interior of the menswear department is clean, classy and not too crowded, giving plenty of space to browse, and the staff appear uniformly smart and attentive.

Debenhams, Eldon Square. Photograph by Peter (aka 'Newcastle Historian')

Having made my selection, I went to the menswear tills, where both cashiers were serving but I was first in the queue. When a cash desk became free, the smartly suited staff member, Sean, apologised for the wait, though in reality I’d only been left hanging on for thirty seconds so – in many other fashion stores, that would be speedy service. While dealing with my purchase, he was chatty but polite, before holding the bag by the corners when he handed it over the counter – perhaps an old fashioned trick, but one that somehow shows due respect for both the customer and the item being purchased.

Overall then, a positive impression from my first shopping experience in Newcastle’s Debenhams, and one where the attention to detail made all the difference.

Beales logo

It seems like it’s not just me who thinks that Beales taking over Robbs would be a good idea, with today’s Hexham Courant reporting that the Bournemouth-based department store operator “has lodged formal notice of interest in the store with administrators MCR”. 

The article adds that “representatives of Beales were looking round the property yesterday”. Meanwhile, MCR has reportedly asked the owners of the Robbs building, the Buccleuch Group, and Northumberland County Council to waive the property’s rent and rates for the next ten weeks, on the basis that keeping the store open longer as a going concern will facilitate its possible sale.

Robbs store, in less uncertain times

Of course, as the Courant itself observes, this is still far from a done deal and there is no certainty that Robbs will be saved; however, Beales formally registering its interest is a significant and promising development. If nothing else, it confirms that Robbs is not a completely lost cause if a respected national retailer, with 120 years’ experience of running department stores, is at the point of taking a good look at the opportunity. 

As I reported before, a sticking point to any takeover could be Buccleuch Group’s own, medium-term development plans for the Robbs site. However, it’s hard to imagine Buccleuch turning down the opportunity to secure Beales as a tenant, given the investment and long-term commitment to Hexham that would surely follow – a much more satisfactory scenario than has been the case under Vergo Retail’s tenancy.

Let’s hope that further, positive developments are swift in coming. The Chairman of Hexham Community Partnership, quoted in the Courant’s article, is right that Robbs’ fate needs to be resolved as speedily as possible, one way or another, so that the future of the town is not left in limbo.

I also agree, however, with Hexham’s new MP, Guy Opperman, who argues that any initiative to help secure a new buyer for Robbs should be encouraged. Given the glimmer of hope that now exists, he’s quite right that all concerned – MCR, Northumberland County Council, Buccleuch Group, the wider community – should use whatever influence and power they have to deliver a positive outcome for Robbs, its staff, and for Hexham.