In-Store articles from September 2005

In-Store archives from September 2005

Post Office to broaden high street retail offer.
September 8, 2005... The Post Office is updating its retail offering in partnership with wholesale group ISA Retail. The move will bring a range of new products and redesigned interiors to 540 directly managed high street stores, with the potential to move...

Mankind moves in-store.
September 8, 2005... Online male grooming product company Mankind is evolving into retail with concessions in two Harvey Nichols stores, in Manchester and Dundrum, Dublin. Retail design by Michael Sheridan & Company focuses on putting men at ease and...

Co-op saves two rare English apple ciders.
September 8, 2005... The Co-op has saved two rare English apple varieties with the launch of its own-label cider. Tillington Hills Premium Reserve Cider, brewed by the Co-op's farming business Farmcare, uses Nottingham Colonel and Tillington Ladies' Finger...

Shopping centre pilots digital security radio.(Brief Article)
September 8, 2005... Thecentre:mk, a shopping centre in Milton Keynes, will be the first commercial site to use a security radio system originally used by the emergency services. The digital Terrestrial Trunked Radio (Tetra) system from Team Simoco will...

Schuh goes for bold.
September 8, 2005... Fashion footwear retailer Schuh has launched a new concept at its 192 sq m Bluewater store, created by Briggs Hillier Design. The design aims to provide a stronger representation of branded and own- brand footwear. Bold colours and...

Whole Foods Market to take Barkers premises.
September 8, 2005... House of Fraser has announced the closure of its Kensington High Street department store Barkers, and US chain Whole Foods Market has unveiled plans for a three-storey flagship in the central London space. The natural and organic...

Yoplait Dairy Crest launches Petits Filous Plus.
September 8, 2005... Yoplait Dairy Crest has launched Petits Filous Plus, a probiotic yoghurt drink formulated for children aged between four and nine. Packaging, created by London-based design consultancy Springetts, is intended to demonstrate to parents the...

Bezier sold to US for #77m.
September 8, 2005... Electra Partners has announced the sale of media specialist Bezier to MidOcean Partners for #77m. "Bezier is an enviable asset," says MidOcean managing director Graham Thomas. "Market trends have shown a shift from above-the-line to...

Marks and Spencer recruits three leading comedians.
September 8, 2005... Marks and Spencer has recruited three of Britain's leading comedians to promote its new Autograph menswear range. Stand-up Jimmy Carr, The Office and Hitchhiker's Guide star Martin Freeman and TV presenter Bob Mortimer will appear in an...

Carling cracks open Firebox promotion.
September 8, 2005... Carling has launched an on-pack promotion in association with games retailing web site Firebox. Can and bottle packs will feature a #5 voucher redeemable against any purchase from Firebox in September and October. Firebox offers quirky,...

Budgens adds muscle to British food pledges.
September 8, 2005... Supermarket group Budgens has launched an in-store initiative to support its Red Tractor promise. The Red Tractor scheme features individual pledges from farmers, processors and packers to illustrate their role in the alliance between...

Zip agency sparks up winter firelighter pack promotion.
September 8, 2005... Standard Brands has appointed marketing agency Haygarth to run an on- pack winter consumer promotion for its Zip firelighters brand. The promotion will run throughout the UK, Ireland and France, three countries where the Zip brand leads...

Del Monte launches experimental sampling campaign.
September 8, 2005... Del Monte has launched an experimental sampling campaign to reposition its canned fruit products. The #1m promotion, managed by ID Live Brand Experience, will run throughout September and October in 75 Asda, Sainsbury's and Tesco stores....

MXR publishes digital radio guides.
September 8, 2005... Regional digital radio consortium MXR has released more than one million free consumer guides, called The Essential Guide to Digital Radio, to be distributed through retailers including John Lewis, Dixons, Comet and Currys. Copyright:...

Number's up for cheque books.
September 8, 2005... Cheque books will be extinct in 20 years, according to high street bank Halifax. Some 2.1 billion cheques were written in 2004, 7 per cent less than the previous year. The decline has been precipitated by increased use of automated cash...

Choosing jeans takes longer than banks.
September 8, 2005... Consumer watchdog Which? has found that the average person spends almost twice as long shopping around for the right pair of jeans than on choosing a current account or checking that the one they have fits their needs. Copyright: Centaur...

Dixons winds up 35mm film division.
September 8, 2005... Electrical retailer Dixons is to stop selling 35mm film cameras due to low consumer demand. It says digital cameras now dominate the market and are expected to outsell film cameras by a ratio of 15:1 this year. "35mm cameras were the first...

Oil of Olay targets over-35 market.
September 8, 2005... Procter & Gamble is using experiential marketing to launch its Oil of Olay Total Effects Anti-Ageing Blemish Care moisturiser. The campaign, conducted by i2i Face to Face Marketing, aims to drive trial and awareness among women aged 35 and...

OCB keeps tabs on rolling paper design.
September 8, 2005... French cigarette rolling paper brand OCB has redesigned its packaging to appeal to 18 to 40-year-olds. The black and silver design is intended to give the product a contemporary look. OCB, which launched in 1918, has seen a 15-fold rise in...

NEWS ANALYSIS: Din at the cheap end.
September 8, 2005... Asda's claim to be the cheapest supermarket has sparked a retort from rival Tesco and an ASA ban. All in a day's work in the UK grocery sector, writes Maeve Hosea Asda has taken an order from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)...

LEADER: Customer service is finally back in style.
September 8, 2005... Perhaps it's a sign of the times that even relatively humble high street fashion stores now offer the services of personal shoppers. The retail sector in the UK is so competitive that the last gasp in the customer service arsenal - real...

SCREEN TALK: A peachy idea for orange.(plasma screens are viable marketing tool)
September 8, 2005... Matt Gayleard, head of marketing services for Orange shops, thinks plasmas beat conventional P-O-P hands-down for in-store communication, entertainment and dwell time At Orange, screens are a viable marketing tool. Plasma screens are a...

Paris vending machines are a novel idea.
September 8, 2005... French bookshop chain Maxi-Livres has installed a number of book vending machines throughout Paris. The 25 titles on offer include Homer's Odyssey and Alice in Wonderland. All books are sold at the low price of Ge1/42 (#1.35). ...

DoMo commissions in-store redesign.
September 8, 2005... Romanian electrical and white goods retailer DoMo has appointed global branding agency Enterprise IG to redesign its in-store environments. The objective is to modernise and soften the design, delivering an unbeatable customer experience....

EU grounds Chinese garments.(Brief Article)
September 8, 2005... UK retailers are facing a potential shortage of autumn clothing ranges due to EU curbs on imports of Chinese clothing. Millions of garments are stranded at ports around Europe. The EU argues that the ruling protects manufacturers in...

Scottish bank takes a stake in China.
September 8, 2005... The Royal Bank of Scotland Group has announced a move into the Chinese market through a $3.1bn (#1.7bn) investment in Bank of China. Bank of China is the nation's top foreign exchange lender and one of the big four banks, which together...

Sony kicks off PSP sampling.
September 8, 2005... Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has launched P-O-P to encourage users to sample and experience its PSP console. The designs, by Checkland Kindleysides, target trade and consumer audiences. Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and...

Johnson & Johnson launches P-O-P.
September 8, 2005... Johnson & Johnson is to introduce a new pan-European range of P-O-P material, developed by Coutts UK. The units will be used in Belgium, France, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Holland, Italy, Portugal, Poland and Switzerland....

DreamWorks blames loss on returns.(Brief Article)
September 8, 2005... US company DreamWorks Animation has cited high DVD return rates as a major factor in its second-quarter net loss of $3.7m (#2.04m), compared with a $146.1m (#80.5m) profit in the same period of 2004. Revenues were down to $35.5m (#19.6m)...

DISPLAY OF THE MONTH: Sweet talking.
September 8, 2005... G.room's Bridget Fell finds Japanese sweet store Minamoto Kitchoan is very much to her taste Bridget Fell, co-founder of men's grooming store G.room, is captivated by Japanese Wagashi confectionery store Minamoto Kitchoan on London's...

CITY TALK: BARKERS GOES DOWN THE GRAIN.
September 8, 2005... The faded Barkers building, on one of the prime shopping spots in London, will turn in a tidy profit for new tenant Whole Foods Market, says Lauren Mills, business writer at the Daily Mail House of Fraser's decision to silence the tills...

CITY NEWS: Heinz announces 'flat' quarterly sales.(Brief Article)
September 8, 2005... Heinz has reported a 19 per cent fall in quarterly profits for the period to 27 July 2005. Profits fell by 19 per cent to $157.3m (#87.4m) compared with $194.8m (#108.3m) in the same period a year earlier. The company says revenue growth in...

CITY NEWS: Carpetright experiences sales slump.
September 8, 2005... Carpetright, the UK's largest carpet retailer, has reported a 7.5 per cent drop in like-for-like sales for the 15 weeks from the end of April. Total sales fell by 7.3 per cent over the same period. "Trading in our UK and Ireland business...

CITY NEWS: Swatch ticks the profits box.
September 8, 2005... Swatch, Switzerland's leading watch-maker, has reported a rise in net profits for the first half of 2005. Sales were up by 6 per cent to 2.07bn Swiss francs (#0.9bn). Sales in Asian countries showed strongest growth and there were signs of...

CITY NEWS: Matalan slashes jobs as spending slows.
September 8, 2005... Discount clothing chain Matalan has announced it is axing 300 jobs because of a consumer slowdown. The move follows a warning in June that jobs would be cut as part of a #15m cost-cutting campaign in response to slower spending. ...

CITY NEWS: Tesco extends reign in groceries.
September 8, 2005... Tesco continues to lead the UK grocery sector, with a 30.5 per cent market share in the 12 weeks to 14 August, according to research group TNS. Asda's share is 16.7 per cent and Sainsbury has lifted its share from 15.4 per cent a year ago to...

CITY NEWS: Morrisons sells stores to Sainsbury's.
September 8, 2005... Sainsbury's has agreed to acquire a further nine Safeway-branded stores from Morrisons. Eight of the leasehold properties are in the south of England and the other is in Scotland. "The stores will provide an opportunity to strengthen our...

CITY NEWS: Morrisons offloads to Waitrose.
September 8, 2005... Waitrose is due to acquire another five stores from Morrisons, subject to OFT approval, taking its store count to 173. The stores are in Durham, Lewes, East Grinstead, St Katherine's Dock and Wilmslow. Waitrose bought 19 stores from...

PROFILE - PAUL NIGHTINGALE, SHOEFAYRE: Life and sole.
September 8, 2005... Shoefayre marketing manager Paul Nightingale is helping to drive the value retailer through a major rebrand - a brave but necessary move in a very competitive market, as he explains to Will Cooper These are exciting times for Paul...

OLYMPIC FOCUS: Let the Games begin.
September 8, 2005... London's winning Olympic bid has fired the starting gun for another type of race: sponsorship. Will Cooper finds out why partnership is already a winning formula for major sporting events London's successful 2012 Olympic bid is one of...

MARKET REPORT: Big retailer, personal service.
September 8, 2005... Free personal shopping services nurture a store-customer relationship that is equally enticing for both parties. Maeve Hosea looks at the burgeoning area of style advice A shopping companion who possesses patience, tact, communication...

SPECIAL REPORT: The pack of beyond.
September 8, 2005... Saturated markets, own-labels and consumer whims are a few of the challenges facing packaging designers. Matthew Valentine examines the latest innovations among those trying to stay ahead Modern packaging uses colour, shape, materials and...

SPECIAL REPORT: Relationship issues.
September 8, 2005... Changes in P-O-P production techniques and increased client demands can strain relationships all the way down the installation chain. As Will Cooper finds out, it's good to talk P-O-P installation is evolving. It has to. Standards are...

POPAI: Information is essential.
September 8, 2005... POPAI receives frequent requests for help and information from members and non-members alike. A regular area of interest is the overseas links that connect POPAI's international network of offices in 20 countries. Questions may relate...

Aluminium displays go for the lock factor.(UK Point of Sale launches locking frames)(Brief Article)
September 8, 2005... UK Point of Sale has launched two additions to its tamper-proof aluminium locking frame range. The first is a 25mm poster frame, made from natural anodised aluminium, with a snap-shut front-opening mechanism and UV anti-glare PVC cover....

Stationery is ready to print.(Brief Article)
September 8, 2005... Denny Bros has released a range of printable stationery products designed for the retail market. Products in the range include Kwik Kards, staple-free header cards for P-O-P, and the IndentiCard series of double-sided laminated badges,...

Customer satisfaction.
September 8, 2005... Kogan Page's latest book, Researching Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty, looks at how to gauge customer satisfaction from a client and a supplier perspective. Topics covered include theories underpinning customer satisfaction and loyalty,...

Hanger brings shoes to heel.(footwear hangers from Phineas Products)(Brief Article)
September 8, 2005... Phineas Products has released a range of footwear hangers, including models for displaying sandals, boots, flip-flops and shoes with a large heel. Made from high-impact black polystyrene and polypropylene, each hanger includes a 30mm...

See the light.(new range of fixtures from Baro)(Brief Article)
September 8, 2005... Lighting designer Baro has launched a new range of fixtures for food retail displays. The Arondo, Bondo and Econdo are fixed units, and the Pendo is a suspended fixture that can be set up with or without the supplied lampshade. All...

EYE ON DESIGN: Virgin Megastore.
September 8, 2005... Black. And red. And vast. But don't let that put you off. This Oxford Street store is Virgin as Virgin does best. Despite being on the first floor, it has an underground warehouse feel, and even a touch of grungy teenager's bedroom about...

EYE ON DESIGN: Game.(game stores)(Brief Article)
September 8, 2005... If Virgin feels a bit like a grungy teenager's basement bedroom, Game is definitely more of a mummy's boy - in a positive sense. It has successfully built its Oxford Street store around the fact that computer gaming is no longer the sole...

EYE ON DESIGN: Gamestation.(game store)(Brief Article)
September 8, 2005... Of all the stores we visited, this one on Lewisham High Street had the most distinctive point of sale package. It is consistent, clear, individual, earthy and definitely blokey. I was offered 'cheap thrills' and asked if I was 'getting much...

EYE ON DESIGN: HMV.
September 8, 2005... The first thing that strikes you when shopping for computer games is the sheer volume of choice. It becomes even more frightening when you discover the multitude of armies, gangs, warlords, assassins, mutoids and superheroes with whom you...