HARVEY NICHOLS
Renowned both in the UK and internationally for the breadth and depth of its exclusive fashion merchandise, international luxury retailer Harvey Nichols offers many of the world’s most prestigious brands through a growing portfolio of stores. The company has six stores in the UK and one in Dublin in the Republic of Ireland, whilst internationally it has five, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Dubai in the UAE; Hong Kong; Istanbul,
Turkey and its most recent store in Jakarta, Indonesia, which opened on 23 October.
Harvey Nichols is currently in negotiation in the Middle East for further stores, though proposed opening dates for these are at least two years away, and there are no plans for further openings until that time.

In the UK, the company’s store at Cabot Circus, Bristol, is now open and is doing a roaring trade, says Harvey Nichols Commercial Director, Patrick Hanly.
“We don’t focus ever so much on our first two or three weeks trading but the store has experienced huge crowds since we first opened. Whilst this may not be the ideal environment for our wealthier customers, they have certainly been spending money — and spending on exactly what we hoped they would, the top designer brands,” he says.
The reality is that in the first couple of weeks, takings were way above budget expectations. To date, the store is still running at around 40 per cent above budget. 
“Clearly, we opened in an extremely poor economic environment, but despite that things are showing little sign of easing up,” Hanly continues. “I think from now until Christmas, retailers are hoping that people will continue to have that feel-good factor, insofar as it is possible as the economy is fairly bleak, and I am hoping that business will be reasonable. However, I fully expect the Spring/Summer season to be very tough, not just in Bristol but throughout the UK.” Bristol has long been on Harvey Nichols wish list, for over ten years in fact, with the retailer viewing the city as the capital of the West Country — much as it viewed Leeds as the capital of the North East, Manchester in the North West, Edinburgh
and Birmingham.
“One of the few other names on that list back in 1995 was Newcastle,” says Hanly, “which we still haven’t achieved, though we continue to be optimistic that we will achieve that goal in time.”

In fact, the list for UK locations is very short indeed, with Harvey Nichols not wishing to ‘over-egg the pudding’. Not only is Bristol the capital of the West Country, but the catchment area is tremendous, with the tourist city of Bath a mere 15 miles away and South Wales, and a great many wealthy areas, within an hour’s drive.
“We looked at the fact that Bristol had been something of a lost city from a retail perspective since the 1950s and this amazing development at Cabot Circus, its sheer scale and the innovative way that it has been designed, undoubtedly caught our imagination,” explains Hanly. “We looked at all this and thought that the quality of upscale retail in the city is very weak and felt that our biggest competitor in Bristol is actually London!”

Of course, Harvey Nichols’ other new opening is situated at the Grand Indonesia Shopping Town development in Jakarta. This marks Harvey Nichols’ debut in Indonesia. With a store spread over 10,000sq m and four floors, the new store represents a diverse portfolio of exclusive brands in fashion, fragrance, beauty and home and will include Harvey Nichols’ signature Foodmarket concept and fine dining restaurants.

So does the design template of the store follow that of other recent openings?
“No two Harvey Nichols stores are the same,” says Hanly. “Very often, we take inspiration from the local environment — little details here and there that make all the difference to the overall store surroundings. The one thing that we always incorporate into our stores are amazing window spaces and bold visual merchandising and displays; it’s very much our signature and we invest a huge amount of money creating amazing windows. Jakarta is no exception.”
The company constantly assesses its entire portfolio and undertakes improvements accordingly, something that has proven to be an ongoing, long-term process — particularly at the flagship Knightsbridge store in London; in the last five years, Harvey Nichols has invested millions of pounds in infrastructure, new air conditioning, lifts and electrical supplies, upgrading water supplies and so forth. This year, it re-fitted the personal shopping department in Knightsbridge, rebuilt the women’s shoe department and has undertaken a huge amount of modernisation with the building of
15 new boutiques for brands. “You have to do this,” says Hanly. “We would typically spend some £6M a year on modernisation in Knightsbridge alone. Clearly, with some of the newer stores, the renewal programme is not so great, but stores such as Knightsbridge and Leeds, which is 12 years old, are undergoing huge modernisation programmes.”

For the full article please see the RLI November 08 issue
 
 
  Paramount Publications Ltd Suite 15, Hardmans Business Centre, New Hall Hey Road, Rawtenstall BB4 6HH UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1706 212200 Fax: +44 (0) 1706 211782 Email: info@rli.uk.com