Tiger confirmed for Newcastle’s ex-Foot Looker spot – while Hema makes positive noises about the city

Tiger Newcastle announcing its arrival (21 Oct 2015)

Following my blog on Monday, and the Chronicle picking up the story on Tuesday, Danish retailer Tiger has confirmed what I expected – the location of its new store in Intu Eldon Square will indeed be the ex-Foot Locker unit.

Popping by yesterday, hoardings around the unit now make it hard for anyone to miss the fact that Tiger’s coming. The use of bespoke graphics – encouraging passers-by to take a #tigernewcastle selfie, under the greeting ”Halløj Newcastle!” – is a nice touch that plays to the local audience, reflects the fun of the Tiger brand, and potentially helps to build a social media buzz about Tiger’s arrival even before it opens.

Indeed, based on the 509 Facebook shares (and counting) that my last blog has had, there certainly seems to be a lot of Geordie love for Tiger, from people who have succumbed to its charms elsewhere in the UK or Europe.

Having succeeded in getting Tiger up here (and Clas Ohlson before it, of course!), I jokingly queried on Twitter which European ‘stuff retailer’ should be next on my hit list. One candidate is the Dutch discount chain Hema – a kind of Tiger meets Woolworths, with nice-looking shops and interesting products, but with more of a homewares and fashion accessories focus.

Hema in Kingston (15 Oct 2015). Photograph by Graham Soult

Given that there are only four Hema stores in the UK so far, including Kingston (which I visited last week, pictured), and the nearest one (just opened) at Birmingham’s Grand Central, I hadn’t really expected Newcastle to be at all on the radar yet. However, I got a surprisingly optimistic reply from Hema on Twitter, saying “Hopefully we will be expanding to Newcastle soon, Graham!”

@soult @KingDaveRa @ClasOhlsonUK @TigerStores @PylonesUK Hopefully we will be expanding to Newcastle soon, Graham! ^CP

— HEMA (@HEMA) October 20, 2015

So, there’s hardly sufficient evidence for the Chronicle to run a story on ‘Hema comes to Newcastle’ yet, and the tweet could just be a friendly response from the person behind the Twitter account rather than anything remotely serious.

That ex-Bank unit on Northumberland Street would make a great spot for Hema, mind…

My retail consultancy business, CannyInsights.com, provides bespoke place- and sector-specific market intelligence, including coverage of variety store retailing and of all parts of the UK. It also works with retailers nationwide to improve their stores and marketing. For more information, visit www.cannyinsights.com, drop me an email, or give me a call on (0191) 461 0361.