Primark sets sail for new shores

Walk around the recently opened Waterfront shopping centre in Bremen, northern Germany, and you can tick them off. Mexx, check. Esprit, check. Jack & Jones, check. You’re in the northern reaches of Euroland and the lucky people of Bremen have the full run of the Euro-brands that you see across the Continent, but which probably find their best expression in the German speaking countries. But hang on a moment. There’s a Primark over there and it’s very large.

By any measure, Irish discounter Primark could not be considered a Euro-brand, in spite of the fact that it now has stores in the UK, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and, of course, its home base in the Republic of Ireland. The 60,000 sq ft Bremen store is its first foray into Germany.

It opened a little over two months ago in the Waterfront development, which is well away from downtown Bremen and is a curious mix of Euro-brands, international players such as Tommy Hilfiger and discounters including C&A, Avanti and New Yorker.

Among the discounters, Primark is by some distance the largest store and full use has been made of the single-floor that stretches away into the distance from the in-mall entrance. Its size alone means that this is an anchor store and its footprint occupies the whole of a corner in Waterfront, acting as an anchor to draw people through the space.

Primark executive for Germany Corinna Hartlieb (responsible in a former life for the establishment of TK Maxx in the country, during 2007) says: “The centre management have been and continue to be very co-operative.” This is perhaps hardly surprising when it is considered that although Waterfront has been open since the autumn last year – not perhaps the most auspicious period in which to fling open the doors – there are still more than a few empty units.

Primark is tight-lipped about the cost of setting up shop in Bremen. But it is hard not to imagine that the “co-operation” referred to by Hartlieb is probably, to a considerable extent, financial and that it may have involved an initial rent-free period or even the payment of a premium to the retailer.

It is also perhaps a little disingenuous to say that on a visit to Waterfront you will have to go looking for the store. The retailer’s name is plastered across the exterior, at a high level and above the frontage of rival discount fashion outfit New Yorker – an indication of just how keen the centre management were to add Primark to the tenant roster.

Hartlieb says that the store has been “worth it” in terms of revenues since opening, adding that the branch is Primark’s “latest concept”. And the interior is the outcome of the continuing relationship between Primark and design consultancy Dalziel+Pow, which worked on the Marble Arch store when it opened in 2007.

Dalziel+Pow creative director David Dalziel is low key about the Bremen store. “This is the latest in a long tail of stores designed in the style of the Oxford Street flagship,” he says. He adds: “The key point about Bremen is the consistency of the application. It is smart, tidy and entirely appropriate for Primark and – no surprises – very, very efficient.”

Dalziel’s words certainly have the ring of truth, but he has underplayed the seeming ease with which the various components that make up the Primark offer have been shoehorned in so that almost all of the departments are visible as you enter the store. A major part of this sleight of hand has to be attributed to the vast atrium that can be viewed from a distance along either of the two sides of the triangle of which Primark is the apex.

Stand on the threshold of this store and look up. Apart from the high levels of daylight, achieved through the simple expedient of a large skylight directly above the atrium, the first impression is of space – owing to the extensive use of mirrors. At the far end of the atrium, in its upper reaches, a glass panel provides cover for a quartet of mannequins dressed in pink and turquoise. And in case you miss this, the white wall behind the glass has floral wallpaper – a contrast to the starkly minimalist feel of the rest of the area.

Look down and Primark has put a plinth with a pair of white mannequins as the introduction to the shop, located directly in front of the main aisle, which affords views to the store’s rear, where more daylight enters the interior through twin glass doors.

The central aisle cleaves the store in two. Hartlieb points out that, viewed from the entrance, womenswear is to the right, while everything else is to the left. She need hardly have noted this as the use of colour immediately indicates the separation of the two divisions.

A different take

It is also noticeable that owing to the fact that this is a single floor, homewares receives a much higher profile than in the Primark at Marble Arch, where it has been relegated to a secondary area on the first floor. A quick scoot around the store reveals other differences, ranging from different wallpaper treatments on parts of the perimeter, to a much higher standard of housekeeping.

The latter is perhaps hardly surprising. This is a newer store and has still to gain traction with the good Burghers of Bremen. For this reason, it does not suffer (or enjoy) the daily influx of thousands of shoppers storming the doors that staff in the Marble Arch flagship have to contend with.

However, it seems probable that this will happen in time. George Wallace, chief executive at consultancy MHE Retail notes: “The search for value is deep-seated in the mind of the German consumer. They’re a pretty savvy bunch and I think they’ll quickly see that it’s not just about low prices, but that it’s nicer than a C&A or a Real hypermarket.” Wallace says that Primark has a formula that seems to have substantial cross-border appeal and that the stores follow a format that makes a rapid roll-out in Germany realistic.

Meanwhile, next week sees Primark unveiling another UK landmark with the opening of its Bristol flagship. Housed in a large corner location at one end of the city’s Broadmead shopping development, this is a site that has housed House of Fraser, Bentalls and before that, John Lewis. Of these, only John Lewis proved adept at making the site work, with both Bentalls and House of Fraser’s tenure being short lived. Dalziel says that the Bristol store will be significantly different from the Marble Arch model.

Overseas and in the UK the Primark fashion steamroller continues to flatten obstacles in its path. Looking cheap when selling cheap merchandise no longer looks the order of the day. German discounters will ignore this latest arrival at their peril, although C&A’s Avanti format, also in Bremen’s Waterfront mall, still looks contemporary and low-priced. Everything to play for, therefore, on the battlegrounds of northern Germany with Primark set to move rapidly south and east.