You’ve got to hand it to Habitat – it continues to break high street ground in the face of considerable adversity. Last week, it welcomed shoppers to a new store in Cheltenham. It had an outlet in the town already, but took the decision that demographics and taste in this location combined in a sufficiently advantageous way to make it worthwhile expanding.

The outcome is a brand new shop that is twice the size of its predecessor and has all the hallmarks of a contemporary furniture retailer. Here are the large open spaces, roomsets that look as if they have been lifted from the pages of a style magazine and merchandise that you would definitely consider opening your wallet for. All of which is a considerable move on for Habitat, which, in its last audited accounts, posted a loss of more than£3 million.

The fact of the matter is that operating in the upper tiers of the very broad mid-market is highly competitive and retailers have to offer something different. This is what Habitat set about doing when it opened its store at Lakeside and has followed this with new-look shops on Regent Street, Finchley Road in northwest London and Cambridge.

Talk to the Habitat management and there is an almost missionary zeal about every store opening and a desire for each store to be better. The problem is that, by necessity, this costs more money than a straightforward roll-out.

For many years, the modus operandi among the larger retailers has been to establish a new format, value engineer it and then place the best elements in all branches across the chain. This is fine when times are good. The grumble about clone Britain doesn’t matter greatly if shoppers are still piling through the doors.

But times are not that good and consumers are likely to become more discerning about where they will go as a result, which means that success is dependent on not presenting the same thing in every town. This is where Habitat is scoring with its refurbishment and new-store programme. It may have a fair number of shops that you wouldn’t class as cutting-edge, but with every relocation and revamp, the bar is raised and shoppers benefit.

Virtually every new Habitat looks different from what went before – a good enough reason in itself to visit. Perhaps others might consider a store strategy along these lines. It may cost more but, equally, when shoppers are in short supply, it provides a means of staying the course.

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