Store gallery: Robinsons Dubai makes seductive department store debut

The ninth World Retail Congress take place in Dubai, a location that, every time you visit, it seems as if a new mall has opened.

One of the newest is Dubai Festival City Mall, a massive development that opened last week not far from Dubai International Airport and is just off the main drag that takes the shopper close to the The Dubai Mall and the Mall of the Emirates.

What makes the Dubai Festival City Mall particularly noteworthy however, is the arrival last week of Singapore-based department store Robinsons.

This is something of an institution in the former Far East British colony and has been around, a little like John Lewis, since the 19^th century.

A department store icon

Robinsons was purchased almost a decade ago by Al-Futtaim Group, the large and acquisitive Dubai retail conglomerate. The department store has made its Middle East debut in the Dubai City Festival Mall, as part of a joint venture between Al-Futtaim and the Chalhoub Group.

The ground and first floors are Robinsons proper, with an interior by UK consultancy HMKM, while the top floor is, unexpectedly, a 15,000 sq ft John Lewis.

This is the latter’s largest presence to date outside the UK and is, in effect, a very large Al-Futtaim-owned concession, but one that feels remarkably like a pukka John Lewis that anyone familiar with the brand would be familiar with.

“The first thing that the shopper confronts is a somewhat bling gold framework that is home to the beauty offer”

Al-Futtaim general manager store development Michael Haasbroek says that, initially, the underlying intention for the store was to give the interior a “Singapore colonial look”.

This played badly with a series of focus groups however and the idea of making it more relevant to the local market was therefore allowed to dominate as part of the design brief.

Practically, this means that walking into the store, the first thing that the shopper confronts is a somewhat bling gold framework that is home to the beauty offer.

Given the local context, this is a shrewd piece of design work, even if it is very different from the Robinsons flagship on Singapore’s Orchard Road.

An opulent affair

Haasbroek states that there are in fact 272 different finishes across the department store with glass, Corian, metal and wood being dominant.

What is evident about the whole of this very upscale interior, including a significant amount of wood sculpting around the pillars, is that this is a designer-led enterprise.

Whether it’s men’s and women’s fashion and beauty on the ground, or the women’s fashion and accessories offer on first, this is an opulent affair and one that should chime well with the affluent Emirati.

Follow the escalator to the top of the store where John Lewis resides, and the mood changes.

The first hint of this can be glimpsed from the first floor and takes the shape of a 3D cushion carousel. This can in fact be seen in both the London and Birmingham John Lewis stores and anyone who has visited either will instantly recognise the British provenance, which rather sets the tone for the rest of this floor.

The best of both worlds

Al-Futtaim general manager Thomas Mitchell, who was operations manager for John Lewis, says that this should look and feel like a UK John Lewis store, but should also be appropriate for the local market.

“We’ve been able to do six room-sets,” he says, “which is not as big as you’d get in a large store in the UK, but is definitely a step in the right direction”.

There are a total of 3,000 products in this shop-in-shop – 13,000 sq ft are devoted to homewares and furniture, and 2,000 sq ft to babywear, nursery furniture and suchlike.

The point about this Robinsons-John Lewis collaboration is that there are, if possible, even more clever pieces of visual merchandising than might usually be found in a typical UK John Lewis. This is an adept piece of mood-setting and, even without the John Lewis signage, it would not be hard to work out the store’s origin.

Robinsons in Dubai is a Singaporean and British department store offer. Both brands are new to the Emirate but appear to be entirely comfortable in their new home.