 With a brand presence in over 160 countries worldwide, Clarks has plans to further expand its global footprint. Helen Thompson, Head of International Franchise, talks to RLI about what steps are in store for the brand.
In which territories do you operate and how many stores do you currently have?
Clarks has a brand presence in over 160 countries and specifically operate over 1,000 stores in 47 countries. The key markets are the UK, where we have 600 stores - 450 owned retail and 110 franchised and 42 outlets.
In North America we operate 250 stores and in other international markets we have over 200 franchise stores with strong footprints in Spain, Holland, Italy, Poland, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and South East Asia.
Do you operate across a number of formats?
Clarks manage a number of different business models across the world and operate through subsidiaries, agents, distributors and joint ventures.
However, from an international perspective, the Clarks strategy is to focus primarily on the franchise store model with a few selected owned stores in key markets such as Germany and Holland.
What part do multi-channel options play in your business?
Multi-channel retailing is becoming an increasingly important part of the Clarks offering and, following the success of clarks.co.uk in the UK, we are now pursuing international opportunities.
We will be launching sites in German, French, Spanish, Dutch and English in 2011 which will enable us to take orders from 17 countries within Europe. We are also evaluating opportunities in Asia.
 How many stores do you have scheduled to open during 2011?
Clarks takes great care in selecting new franchise partners. In the last few weeks we have opened stores in Australia, Rome, Colombia, and Germany.
The plan for 2011 is to open 100 new stores across the globe working specifically with local franchise partners who have a shared scale of ambition.
Longer term, what are your plans?
As a company Clarks takes a long term view on growth and we agree five year roll out plans with all our key partners around the world and work extremely closely with them.
Which do you view as your ‘flagship’ store and why?
In the UK we have flagship stores on Oxford Street and internationally we have key stores in all the major cities in the countries that we operate.
We have also successfully trialled a new store format in London, Washington DC, Beijing, Madrid, Hamburg and Amsterdam which we will be rolling out to all new stores from March, as well as embarking on an aggressive re-fit programme for existing stores.
What is the ideal location for Clarks stores?
We have been operating international stores for over 25 years and it is clear that our business is highly adaptable to global markets.
Our stores long-term success is crucial; therefore we invest in selecting the right location in partnership with our franchisees.
Ideally the location would be within a principal shopping area with high footfall and surrounded by other international and independent fashion retailers.
www.clarks.co.uk
For the full article, please see the March 2011 issue.
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