Aurora Dual- branded stores mirror Europe

“Thanks to the Internet, the UK customer is getting more used to the multi-brand spaces, so this seems to be a good moment to see if this can work as it does in the rest of Europe.” Mike Shearwood, Chief Executive of Aurora Fashions, explains

to FashionUnited that joint stores are quite common in Continental Europe and that he sees an opportunity to try this modality in the UK in terms of gaining new customers and looking for further expansion and brand awareness.

“Multi-brand sites are common internationally. We’re considering doing a trial in the UK of a multi-brand site to see how it would perform. If this format were to work, it may be an opportunity to do more,” he summed up.

Taking the opportunity of its 3rd quarter report presentation to media, the British retailer Aurora Fashions unveiled its plans to develop dual-branded stores. They are to start with a trial version combining young fashion womenswear chains Warehouse and Oasis in a dual-branded store format that will allow it to open at out-of-town retail parks in a couple of months.

They are currently looking for new locations to implant their pilot dual-branded stores, which are hoped to be opening for the beginning of 2011. Sheerwood also highlighted that this kind of store requires a slightly larger location than the traditional ones and they are mainly looking to open in shopping centres to explote this customer's niche. By the moment, they are not thinking of involving Karen Miller and Coast in their new venture, as their are targeting a different public.

Despite this is not the first pilot project bringing together various brands owned by the same group under the same roof, it is true that Aurora Fashions would be the pioneer within the fashion industry. Similar ventures have been seen in other sectors, mainly food & beverage, telecomms or consumer goods. There is just a similar peer to be compared to: the first ever combined TK Maxx and HomeSense store, which opened its doors last September.

Other sample of this incipient dual-branded stores trend is Everything Everywhere, the mobile phone retailer created by the merger of T-Mobile and Orange, which just started to trial this new concept in a move that could result in store closures. As they explained when launched the initiative, the trial is planned for November, in three stores in towns in the West Country. Everything Everywhere chief commercial officer Andrew Ralston said: “We are looking at small market towns where we have both Orange and T-Mobile stores and considering combining both. Store closures are dependent on the pilot.” The shops will be located in Tooting, Palmers Green, Weston-super-Mare, Hertford, Bridgend and Dorchester, having all of them either a T-Mobile or Orange store in the area, but not both.

Image: Coast