Poundland fascia

One of the few empty shops in Hexham will soon be occupied again, with Poundland set to move into the former Heron Foods site in Priestpopple.

Though no opening date has been confirmed yet, store jobs have been advertised and a planning application submitted for “one internally illuminated fascia sign and one internally illuminated hanging sign”. Drawings of the signage attached to the application confirm Poundland as the retailer in question. [UPDATE, 14 Nov 2011: The opening has now been confirmed for this coming Thursday, 17 November.]

The move is significant in that it’s outside Hexham’s main pedestrianised thoroughfare of Fore Street, where multiple retailers have tended to cluster. That street, however, is consistently fully let, with Mountain Warehouse (in the former Stead & Simpson) and Iceland (in the old Woolworths) among the recent arrivals.

Priestpopple, Hexham (4 Dec 2010)

Priestpopple and Market Street, in contrast, have tended to have a higher proportion of independent stores. Nevertheless, the former Heron site is in a good location – close to the bus station, opposite the side entrance to Beales department store (formerly Robbs), and on the way to the hidden Marks & Spencer in Maidens Walk – and Poundland’s arrival is likely to drive footfall further.

Beales' side entrance, Hexham (18 Sep 2011)

Hexham’s shop vacancy rate is traditionally in the low single figures, and this letting again confirms the Northumberland town’s attractiveness to retailers – as well as Poundland’s continued foray into more upmarket locations. The joy of Hexham as a shopping destination is that it combines a good mix of chains with some superb independent shops and cafés, such as Dillies (flower, chocolate and wine shop) in Market Street, and the delightful Artful gallery and Cornmill Coffee Shop in St Mary’s Chare.

Dillies, Hexham (19 Aug 2010)

As I’ve noted before, however, tentative plans for the relocation and redevelopment of Hexham’s bus station need to be progressed if the town is to capitalise on all those big-name retail space requirements that currently cannot be met.

Grays Inn Road entrance to former High Holborn Woolworths (5 Apr 2011)

Sometimes I wish I was able to clone my blogging self, in order to have more time to write about all the topics that I’d love to cover.

For example, following on from my first-day reactions to the Retail London Conference, there are still quite a few things from the second day of speakers – including ex-Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy – that I want to address in the coming days.

Meanwhile, the news of Beales’ transformational purchase of 19 Westgate department stores from Anglia Co-op (ARCS), which broke while I was at the conference, is also definitely worth a blog, and has major implications for several North East towns: Redcar and Bishop Auckland, where Beales is acquiring the existing Westgate stores; Hartlepool and Blyth, where ARCS is keeping its Westgate stores – for now – as part of a rump department store estate; and even Hexham, where Beales already owns Robbs. More from me on all that, I hope, early next week.

Howard Saunders at the Retail London Conference

On the topic of Retail London, I was interested to see Howard Saunders from Echochamber kick off his speech on day two – about the retail implications of the global recession – with a photo of a closed-down Woolworths, joking that it was the first thing visitors saw when they came to London.

His remark raised a laugh, of course, and there’s little doubt that images of shuttered Woolworths stores have become one of the most poignant and symbolic illustrations of the current economic slowdown.

However, despite being the Woolies nerd that I am, I held my tongue and refrained from pointing out that (1) even by August last year, a reported 81% of ex-Woolies sites in Greater London had found new occupants and that (2) unless visitors were planning on venturing out of central London, they’d be hard-pressed to find a recently-closed Woolworths anyway. Still, there’s no need to let the facts get in the way of an amusing anecdote…

Former Woolworths (now Waitrose) in Edgware Road (14 May 2010)

As you would expect, I used my spare time while in London to track down some more of those long-gone Central London Woolies sites. Regular readers may recall that in May last year, I snapped the former Woolworths in Edgware Road (#2031, now Waitrose), which managed to survive until June 2008, following it up in September with visits to the former Woolies in Victoria (#800, now Argos) and Kensington High Street (#162, now Uniqlo), both of which closed in the early 1980s.

Most recently, in November, I returned to Kensington and tracked down the original store #162, further along the street, as well as capturing the former Oxford Street flagship (#161, now Uniqlo), the old Woolies in Brompton Road, near Harrods (#391, now Boots), and what I hoped was the long-closed store at High Holborn (#173).

Grays Inn Road entrance to former High Holborn Woolworths (5 Apr 2011)

My first task this time was to return to High Holborn, to follow up reader Gabriella Coscia’s feedback after my initial visit. While Gabriella was able to confirm that I had indeed identified the correct property, she revealed that the building had been reclad rather than “pulled down” as 100thBirthday.co.uk had claimed. Furthermore, she pointed out that I’d missed the old side entrance around the corner in Grays Inn Road, with Argos now occupying a part of the building that hadn’t been externally remodelled since Woolworths’ departure.

Sure enough, the Argos section of the building has ‘former Woolies’ written all over it, with its distinctive black stall riser and white tiled steps – quite a surprising survival for a store that closed as Woolworths in 1984. While there, I also crossed over to the opposite side of the road to get a better shot of the reclad High Holborn frontage.

Former High Holborn Woolworths (5 Apr 2011)

According to Gabriella, Woolies occupied the portion of the building that now houses Dorothy Perkins (previously Richards), Holland & Barrett (previously Clinton Cards) and Thorntons, as well as obviously the Argos section round the corner. Reed and Robert Dyas, however, were apparently trading from their locations while Woolworths was still open, meaning that the Woolies store must have been basically L-shaped at ground-floor level.

Former Woolworths (?) (now Paperchase), Tottenham Court Road (6 Apr 2011)

Continuing on to Tottenham Court Road, we have an ex-Woolies whose precise location – or even existence – seems to be a pretty hazy memory, judging from some of the online discussions about it.

Thanks to the trusty New Bond, we know that there definitely was a Woolies store in Tottenham Court Road, as it’s referred to in my copy of the December 1958 issue. It was store #175 – suggesting a November 1924 opening – and appears as a line in the ‘Changes and Appointments’ section of the magazine, listing a Mr R W Parratt, who was the manager of #175, as having moved to become manager of store #602 in Norbury.

The actual location is harder to pin down. At least one source suggests that it was the large property now occupied by a Paperchase flagship at 213-215 Tottenham Court Road, and this seems plausible looking at the building. Its overall scale and symmetry, and the double-height shop frontage, are certainly redolent of other central London Woolworths branches, such as those in Oxford Street and Kensington High Street.

Former Woolworths (?) (now Paperchase), Tottenham Court Road (6 Apr 2011)

The property’s page on Camden Council’s planning website also has links to some interesting historical documents, showing an application for major alterations in 1978, as well as a contemporaneous application for new Paperchase signage.

It’s not clear whether or not Paperchase was already in situ at that time, but a 1970s closure of the Woolies store would account for the hazy recollections, and fits with the types of locations that were being closed down at that time. Hopefully, as before, publishing this blog will elicit further memories that help us get to the bottom of the mystery.

Mountain Warehouse, Hexham (1 Jan 2011)

Visiting Hexham on New Year’s Day, I was interested to see that a new branch of Mountain Warehouse had sprung up since I was previously in the town, barely a month earlier.

The expanding outdoor retailer – which opened its 100th store earlier in 2010 – has taken over the Fore Street premises previously occupied by a tired Stead & Simpson shop, in a move that confirms Hexham’s status as a highly desirable location for retailers. Interestingly, both Mountain Warehouse and the nearby Millets were happily trading on New Year’s Day, with Beales’ decision to open up Robbs department store on the public holiday seemingly giving impetus to other stores nearby.

Fore Street, Hexham (1 Jan 2011)

The recent LDC research commissioned by the BBC’s Inside Out programme flagged Hexham as having the lowest proportion of vacant shops (just 5%) among the North East towns surveyed, and it’s certainly true that there are virtually no empty units in the town’s main shopping streets. In turn, those units that do become vacant – such as this one, or Hexham’s former Woolworths site (now Iceland) – tend to be reoccupied very swiftly.

Iceland, Hexham (1 Jan 2011)

The danger for Hexham is that if it fails to provide new space to meet this pent-up demand, top retailers seeking a south Northumberland location will continue to flock instead to Morpeth’s Sanderson Arcade. Opened at the end of 2009, that development is of very high quality, and has been well designed in a way that provides new routes between the town’s bus station, its main shopping thoroughfare (Bridge Street), and the largest supermarket (Morrisons).

These ingredients have allowed it to attract an impressive raft of top-notch retailers including M&S, Laura Ashley, Fat Face, Crew Clothing and Waterstone’s, soon to be joined by Northumberland’s first branch of Monsoon.

Beales-owned Robbs of Hexham (1 Jan 2011)

Hexham’s main opportunity for town centre retail development is the current bus station on Priestpopple, a place that is presently a rather miserable environment for bus passengers at the same time as blocking what ought to be a natural route between Robbs and the Marks & Spencer store in Maidens Walk.

The former Co-op supermarket, which traded from the M&S site for ten years until 2006, reportedly opened its store on the basis that a link with the town centre would be created – fifteen years later, the people of Hexham are still waiting for that physical connection to be made. Though the compact M&S store always seems surprisingly busy with shoppers, there must be a significant number of visitors to Hexham who arrive and depart the town without ever realising that it exists.

Making sure that 2011 is the year when the bus station redevelopment finally gets off the drawing board should ensure that M&S’s continued presence in Hexham is secured, at the same time as giving some hope to all those other big-name retailers that are still queuing up for space.

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.

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.

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.

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’.

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.

Robbs of Hexham

If you read the Hexham Courant, you’ll have seen the extensive coverage in Friday’s paper of Robbs’ impending closure, following the announcement, by the administrators MCR, that the department store will close within four weeks. The Courant devoting three pages to the story is hardly surprising given Robbs’ status as the largest and most prominent store in Hexham town centre – its closure is big news, and is bound to deal a short-term blow to the town’s appeal as a retail destination.

As I appended to my blog post last week, Robbs is one of nine loss-making Vergo Retail stores already earmarked for closure, while a buyer is sought for the ten remaining shops. However, just as Robbs was saved with days to spare three years ago, so there remains hope that someone could again step in and rescue the store from the brink.

With that prospect of rescue – however faint – in mind, I was pleased to have a chat last week with the Courant’s Helen Compson, talking about what the future of Robb’s might look like. You can see Helen’s article, featuring my comments, here. So who, if anyone, might be in the frame to take over Robbs this time?

To be honest, there are few plausible candidates. As I suggested to Helen, independent department stores – the most likely suitors – have been on the wane for years, with many longstanding names closing down (Cardiff’s David Morgan, for instance) or being swallowed up by larger rivals (such as Beatties and Jenners by House of Fraser, Roomes by Morleys, and Williams & Griffin and Bentalls by Fenwick).

Of those indies that remain, many are individual department stores that are very much associated with a particular place (Atkinsons in Sheffield or Rutherfords in Morpeth, for example), or are small chains focused upon particular parts of the country – such as the six-strong Morleys group in London, which has reportedly already ruled itself out of acquiring any Vergo shops due to the poor geographical fit with its current portfolio.

There are, however, a handful of operators who could conceivably come to Robbs’ rescue.

Allders

Allders in Croydon. Photograph by Neil Clifton

Croydon-based department store Allders appears to be thriving following its 2005 purchase by Jaeger owner Harold Tillman – recent successes, for example, include attracting online lingerie retailer Figleaves to open its first physical outlet. Go back just a few years, however, and Allders was itself the victim of Vergo-style over-expansion, with the then 45-strong UK-wide chain collapsing into administration in 2005.

Today, the massive 319,000 sq ft Croydon store is the only one left trading under the Allders name, after Tillman bought up both the Allders brand and the lease on the Croydon premises. Of the remaining Allders sites, many were bought up by Bhs, Primark and Debenhams.

Since Allders’ resurrection, rumours of a renewed expansion for the business have persisted, with Tillman mentioned as a possible suitor for both Robbs and Joplings (in Sunderland) last time those stores went into administration in 2007. No indication of Allders’ interest has yet emerged this time, however; indeed, Joplings and Derrys (in Plymouth) would be more likely targets than Robbs if Allders were to once again seek the flagship, city centre sites that characterised its previous incarnation.

Beales

Beales' flagship store in Bournemouth. Photograph by David Lally

If anyone’s going to snap up Robbs, Bournemouth-based Beales is surely the hot favourite, with several factors in its favour:

• Location: with its portfolio stretching from Poole in Dorset to Kendal in Cumbria, there is a geographical logic to Beales taking over a store in neighbouring Northumberland.
• Demographic: Beales’ locations, ranges and concessions see it targeting a similar market to Robbs – with the ‘grey pound’ prominent – though its recent move into ecommerce and investment in men’s young fashion has demonstrated the chain’s determination to modernise its image and widen its appeal.
• Store type: Beales tends not to compete with the big department store chains in large city centre locations, but is more usually found as the anchor store in slightly smaller towns and cities – very similar to Robbs’ status within Hexham.

Perhaps most importantly, Beales unusually finds itself in a healthier position now than it was in 2007. After snapping up several unwanted Bentalls stores from Fenwick in 2002 and a former Allders site in Horsham in 2006, Beales was seen as “underperforming” at the point when Robbs was last on the market, with one analyst rather bluntly claiming that “[It is] going nowhere without a bid and [there is] no sign of one at present”. In May 2007, just as Robbs was being ‘saved’, Beales was announcing its second profit warning in three months (suggesting that no interim dividend would be paid), and was gearing up to close its department store in Ealing.

Fast forward three years and, reinvigorated under the leadership of ex-Bhs man Tony Brown, things look much more promising for Beales. Only last month, it opened its first new store in four years, a 14,000 sq ft shop in Fareham, Hampshire under a new ‘Beales for Men’ fascia, while the retailer must surely have benefited from its tie-up with George Davies’ new venture, GIVe. Crucially, Beales has also made clear in recent months that it’s interested in acquisitions, with fashion industry journal Drapers also querying in the last few days whether this might materialise into an interest in selected Vergo stores:

Indie department store chain Beales is likely to keep a close eye on the administration process. Beales is on the acquisition trail after shareholder and property entrepreneur Andrew Perloff upped his stake in the 11-store chain to 29.7% in February. The group is believed to be interested in leasehold opportunities, pushing it to the front of the pack of potential interested parties. Beales chief executive Tony Brown said only that the business was looking to expand.

Additionally, the Drapers article suggests that possible suitors may find Robbs one of the more attractive stores within the Vergo portfolio, quoting an unnamed retail source who told the magazine that “a potential buyer could return Robbs of Hexham or Derrys in Plymouth to profitability with the right landlord deal and a store revamp”.

That landlord deal point is, of course, absolutely key, given that the Robbs premises are owned by Buccleuch Group, rather than by Vergo Retail itself, and that Buccleuch’s redevelopment plans for the site are still simmering in the background. Against this backdrop, any potential purchaser of the Robbs business will surely demand assurances regarding the store’s ability to continue trading, in the long term, from that site, with or without whatever redevelopment might take place.

David Thompson

One name I didn’t mention in my interview with Helen is David Thompson, Vergo Retail’s owner. Having taken Robbs into administration (as part of Owen Owen) and then bought it out again (as Vergo Retail) three years ago, there would be nothing to stop Thompson doing the same this time – just as former MK One business partner Elaine McPherson has done with Ethel Austin, taking the business into and out of administration in both 2008 and 2010.

Frankly, however, this prospect must be a non-starter, particularly after what the Courant says are Thompson’s recent assurances that Robbs was “thriving” – something of a contrast to MCR’s statement last week that Vergo “could not continue to trade in the short term without implementing immediate cost saving measures”. True, as the only option on the table in 2007, Thompson’s last-minute rescue of the store gave Robbs a welcome stay of execution, and hope – now dashed – that he was after all the right man to build a viable future for the business.

This time – if Robbs is to be worth saving at all – staff, concession holders, suppliers and customers will surely demand new ideas, and proper investment. Time is running out, however, to find out whether those new ideas might come from Beales, Allders, or someone else entirely.

Thank you to Dr Neil Clifton for the use of the photograph of Allders, and David Lally for the shot of Beales. The photographs are © Copyright Neil Clifton and © Copyright David Lally respectively, and both licensed for re-use under the Creative Commons Licence.

Millets store

Today’s retail news has arguably been dominated by Marks and Spencer revealing better than expected results, and Blacks Leisure (owner of Millets, as well as its eponymous chain) announcing plans to shut 89 stores that “have not traded profitably for many years” (in which case, you may wonder why the company has persevered with those branches as long as it has – Woolworths’ demise surely demonstrates the potential for ropey stores to bring the profitable ones crashing down with them).

While established names link M&S and Blacks display mixed fortunes in their quest for future success, one of today’s other (less prominent but no less interesting) retail stories relates to a brand new presence on the high street – GIVe, the latest venture from fashion guru George Davies of Next, George at Asda and Per Una fame.

Following months of anticipation, GIVe’s Regent Street flagship has opened today, with 21 other shops – five standalone stores and 16 department store concessions – following tomorrow. Alongside London, the standalone GIVe stores are in all the top shopping centre locations that you would expect – Bluewater, Cribbs Causeway, Kingston-upon-Thames, Liverpool One, Meadowhall – with Glasgow and Harrogate following soon.

Unusually, the concessions are all located within independent department stores, including all 11 Beales sites – a refreshing change from the usual House of Frasers and Debenhams. This decision, reportedly, is linked to Davies’ wish to offer a free minor alterations service within all his GIVe shops, as well as his desire for a less corporate, more boutiquey feel – hence the sense in tying up with department stores that already provide this type of personal, customer-focused service.

Several observations can be made about the store portfolio. Most obvious, from a North East viewpoint, is the absence as yet of any GIVe stores in our region. Perhaps we shouldn’t worry – after all, there’s no GIVe store to date in Manchester, Leeds or Edinburgh either. However, compared to other major regional shopping centres, such as Bluewater and Cribbs Causeway, I do wonder sometimes about MetroCentre’s ability to attract and retain the top names – take for example the oft-cited departure of Gap and its replacement with Peacocks.

Don’t get me wrong - Peacocks is a great shop – but it’s ubiquity means that it’s not really a special shop. For me, a special shop can still be part of a retail chain, but it needs to be one that has few enough stores to make each one a real destination – shops like the John Lewis’s, Fenwicks, Selfridges, Apple Stores and Lego Stores of this world. Other than the Berghaus flagship, it’s difficult to think of stores in MetroCentre that would fit this definition. Is it a function of the existing retail mix? The fact that the 22-year-old MetroCentre, with the exception of the Red Mall extension, looks rather cheap and dated compared to its newer competitors? Or something else? 

Certainly, Apple Store’s important decision to open up in Newcastle’s Eldon Square extension (blogged about here), alongside a growing roster of big-name fashion retailers, may help give Eldon Square the edge as the most likely location for GIVe’s North East debut. Alternatively, Rutherfords in Morpeth (mentioned here) or Robbs in Hexham would be obvious candidates, were GIVe to go down the concessions route.

Another observation about GIVe’s store portfolio is quite what a coup – and potential boost – this is for Beales, whose recent performance has been patchy to say the least. Assuming that GIVe is a success, Beales is sure to reap some benefit in terms of both footfall and trade. If nothing else, it will help to make its sometimes tired-looking stores more of a retail destination again.

GIVe homepage

 Inevitably, a blog post like this would not be complete without me passing comment on GIVe’s online presence. I’m hardly qualified to comment on the women’s fashions themselves, but the good quality photographs are really effective, and I like how the clothes can be browsed by colour as well as garment type. The ‘style with’ tips – suggesting belts or bags to go with your top – also seem like a canny move. If nothing else, Davies’ ability to launch a high street retail chain and fully operational online store on the same day is pretty impressive. Recognising the synergies between bricks and clicks, the site – unlike others I could mention - also gets brownie points for featuring a list of GIVe store locations, complete with opening times, contact details, and the name of the store manager.

Any obvious website downsides? None especially, other than the predominant black and white look making the GIVe site resemble any number of other fashion retailers’ – House of Fraser or the aforementioned Tucci, to name just two. As always, if you’ve surfed the GIVe website – or indeed visited one of the high street stores – feel free to share your own reactions to the GIVe experience.

Image by Zoran

I was quite chuffed, this morning, to have a short article on web usability published in The Journal. Much of what I wrote is, or at least should be, common sense: essentially, the need to understand what information your customers are looking for, and to give it to them in a way that is clear and engaging. Though the examples I used in the article related to tourism websites, the same principles apply across the board, including to retailers.

To be fair, many of those retailers with ecommerce sites have become increasingly adept at offering an easy and stress-free user experience. On the pure etail side, for example, Play.com’s clean, uncluttered interface makes it a pleasure to use – sometimes, it has to be said, more so than the increasingly complex Amazon.co.uk. Similarly, in more niche markets, many of the sites submitted to my Home Interiors Directory and Garden & Landscape Directory manage to combine a user-friendly online shop with a quirky and distinctive tone of voice.

Among those retailers that straddle both bricks and clicks, JohnLewis.com is particularly effective at conveying those brand values of space, quality and attention to detail that are similarly prominent within its stores. In contrast, I tend to find the Ikea website confusing to use, and normally end up heading to the physical store at MetroCentre instead.

Generally, though, I often find that it’s those retailers with simpler sites – providing basic information about the business, rather than e-commerce functionality – that would benefit most from an online revamp. So, using the example of department stores, how about some candidates for those retailers that I think are most or least effective at managing their basic online presence?

Fenwick website

One retailer whose website has always disappointed me is Newcastle-based chain Fenwick. Though the site’s content has been beefed up of late, and now provides core information about the company and its stores, its imagery and overall appearance is somehow cold and aloof; certainly, there’s no sense of the retail theatre that you get when paying a visit to its Newcastle flagship.

Williams & Griffin website

In contrast, the website for Williams & Griffin – a department store that Fenwick acquired in 2008 - conveys a much warmer and more engaging feel through its purple palette and use of colour photographs. Coverage of individual departments within the store is also more comprehensive than on its parent company’s site. Instead, Willie Gee’s main oversight is failing to tell us, anywhere on its home page or ‘about us’ section, where the store actually is. Thankfully, the ‘contact us’ page reveals that we can find Williams & Griffin in Colchester.

Bentalls website

Over to another Fenwick acquisition – this time Bentalls, in Kingston-upon-Thames and Bracknell – and yet another different set of brand imagery. The layout and content of the site is functional, but the overall look is cheaper and less slick than you might expect for a quality department store brand. Generic smiling women stock photos, an unreadable scrolling ticker, and – worst of all – an @btconnect.com email address (should you fancy the advertised cookery classes) all convey a less than professional image. Equally, the ‘copyright 2006′ tag and lack of any news stories give the impression of a site that is not lovingly maintained.

Beales website

If the Bentalls site conveys an image that seems at odds with its brand, Beales’ problem is that its site struggles to convey much of a personality at all. The home page is dominated – overwhelmed, even – by an enormous offers banner, yet the site gives only a limited feel for what it’s like to shop at a Beales store. Even the ‘about us’ page links to a ‘corporate statement’, its talk about ‘entry price points’, ‘trading policy’ and ‘assortments’ squarely aimed at shareholders rather than customers. Shoppers are unlikely to be wooed by the revelation that “value, at all levels of the market, plays an increasingly important part for our customers [sic] shopping basket”.

Encouragingly, we are promised a ‘new website’, ‘coming soon’ in autumn 2009; there’s even a countdown timer, helpfully informing us that the ’time until launch’ is ’34 days, 2 hours, 10 minutes and 26 seconds’. That’s undoubtedly good news, but it’s always a risky ploy to make such a big deal of an upcoming website revamp – not only are you building customers’ expectations about what they can expect in 34 days’ time (which is fine, assuming that the new site meets or exceeds those expectations), but you’re also effectively saying to shoppers that “we realise our current site isn’t very good”.

Lewis's website

One site that is too new to require a Beales-style makeover is that for the iconic Liverpool-based department store Lewis’s.  The Lewis’s site is largely effective, speaking with a distinctly local voice that successfully conveys the retailer’s independence and uniqueness. The site also celebrates the store’s heritage – with historic photos, and visitors invited to ‘submit their memories’ – at the same time as providing plenty of information about current and planned developments. If you were to pick fault, you might argue that the site sometimes has too much going on – for example, it might benefit from a little more white space, and less content disappearing off ‘below the fold’.

Rutherford & Co website

After so many niggles, we should probably end on a more positive note. One site that I particularly like is that for Rutherford & Co, an independent, family-owned department (or ‘lifestyle’) store based in Morpeth, in Northumberland. Where the Fenwick site fails to do the physical store justice, Rutherford & Co has packed its site with beautiful photographs that effectively convey the rich and quirky instore experience. “Welcome to the sumptuous world of Rutherfords”, the site’s home page declares, and – for once – it really does deliver on its promise.

Thank you to Zoran for making available the image used at the top of this post.