Analysis: Mamas & Papas northern flagship opens at Trinity Leeds

To the seasoned London retail observer, the decision by maternity and babywear retailer Mamas & Papas to close its Regent Street store might be a sign of a troubled business. Why else would an outfit choose to leave one of the UK’s busiest shopping thoroughfares - particularly one where the expectation is of fringe luxury or the top end of the mid-market at the very least - surely Mamas & Papas territory?

The answer is quite straightforward. Deputy chief executive Tim Maule says the decision was taken in the face of rising rents and the fact that the two Westfield centres in London are better suited to the kind of customer arriving at a Mamas & Papas store: “They need to have a car with them and that’s difficult in Regent Street - you can park at Westfield.”

Curious then that the retailer has just opened a northern flagship store in the Trinity Leeds scheme, which opened on March 21, which has no car parks, although there are a number in its immediate vicinity. That said, parking is still considerably easier and much cheaper in Leeds than in the capital.

For consumers arriving at the store, the vista is different from a standard Mamas & Papas shop. For starters, there’s the logo, which has been overhauled and coloured white and lime green against a black background. It’s a no-nonsense, lowercase logo, and the backdrop to the windows, either side of the main door, is similarly pared back. The focus is on the stock on display and it is given a neutral backdrop.

Fashion focus

Head into the store and the first thing that is apparent is not row upon row of prams, but a display of young children’s, not babies’, clothing. White, open-sided wardrobes form the essence of the display with punched metal cubes used as plinths alongside this. Add a few mannequins to the mix and suddenly this is a fashion store, somewhat confounding expectations about what should be found in a shop of this kind.

This vignette is just inside the front door and to the left there is a mid-shop clothing island, demarcated by a curved white plinth and used to display less bright, but co-ordinated merchandise. The story continues in a similar vein into the middle of the store - the emphasis in this 4,000 sq ft, single-floor branch is on children’s clothing, rather than the paraphernalia more usually associated with mother and baby shops.

Maule says the underlying thinking has been simple: “What we’ve had to do is make the store easier to shop.” He adds: “This is our northern flagship and we’ve approached it that way because we’re a northern business.”

He says the process of creating the template for the shop has involved redesigning the in-store equipment and that this has been undertaken entirely in-house. “We’ve warmed up the store and tried to make this the sort
of place you’ll feel comfortable spending time in,” he says.

This means a store where, as you move through the area, the offer shifts from clothing to the hardware of providing a safe and pleasing environment for your recent arrival(s). There is, of course, a display of prams, but it is relatively modest and is once more on a raised, circular island with a pillar at its centre. The latter picks up the lime colour of the logo and applies a white message to it that reads: ‘Never Forget Your First Time’. This display is actually on two levels, allowing the space to be worked hard and to ensure that a reasonable number of models can be shown. Next to this, there is another island, this time for highchairs, constructed with the kind of rugged, four-wheel drive look that is in vogue at the moment and that makes you think it might be an idea to feed your child on top of Kinder Scout.

Star-quality stock

The final portion of this deep and narrow store is a series of roomsets. Maule says Mamas & Papas is famous for its roomsets and the dark wood of the nursery furniture gives the area a certain appeal.

What is really obvious though, is that this is a store where the stock is the star from start to finish. The neutral backdrop of the windows is carried through as a theme across the interior. Stark white has been avoided, however, and this is a warm, cream colour palette. Also worth noting is the manner in which the ceiling highlights what is going on beneath it with circular recessed or raised lighting. This is interesting because what Maule and his team have succeeded in doing is creating an in-store landscape that does not feel like a square box, although that is exactly what it is.

There are also revamped fitting and feeding rooms for mothers-to-be and mothers, and additional provision has been made for the requirements of this lifestage, including baby-wipes and nappies, supplied free, if they are needed.

Maules says what has been done in Leeds, which has been six months in the making, will form the blueprint for new stores as further expansion is undertaken. There are 64 Mamas & Papas stores in the UK and 40 franchised operations overseas and, as Maule points out, “in Russia we’ll have 10 stores by the end of 2013”.

The Trinity Leeds store is somewhat half-pint sized when set against the average store size of 6,500 to 7,000 sq ft, according to Maule. It provides a benchmark for the rest of the chain and on the day of opening it was doing good business. Maule also says the costs involved have been carefully controlled and that it has been a matter of “being smarter with the kit”.

On balance, this is a good-looking interior and the only one of its kind in Trinity Leeds. The next new-look store is to open in Fareham in May. Mamas & Papas has offered something fresh to its shoppers with this store and its location at the heart of the latest Land Securities scheme should mean that it sees a steady supply of shoppers passing through its doors.