DEICHMANN UK MARKS 10TH ANNIVERSARY WITH THE OPENING OF ITS SECOND FLAGSHIP STORE AT WESTFIELD STRATFORD CITY
Published: 13 September, 2011
German shoe retailer Deichmann, which has more than 3,000 stores in Europe and the US and sells shoes at a starting price of £9.99, will mark its 10th UK anniversary with the opening of a second flagship store at Westfield Stratford City. The Group also confirmed plans to open an additional 10 stores before the end of the year, taking its UK footprint up to 60 outlets.
The company continues to believe that the UK could see up to 400 Deichmann outlets, with a focus on the largest 200 towns and cities, opening up in the long-run.The new Westfield outlet – the fourth UK store that the retailer has opened with the shopping centre company – will be 7,500 square feet.
During 2011 the shoe giant expects to invest approximately £4 million on UK store development and redevelopment and to create 200 new jobs.
Deichmann is the market leader of shoe retailers in Europe. Deichmann will also use its UK anniversary to launch its eStore – effectively giving it a national presence and acknowledging the major shift in consumer shopping behaviour since it opened its first high street outlet in the UK a decade ago.
The company will be supporting both the eStore and the anniversary through a six-month marketing campaign. Creating a strong link to fashionable icons has been a recent key pillar of the company’s global marketing activity. Deichmann works with supermodel Cindy Crawford – who even has her own line of shoes called 5th Avenue.
The company reveals that it expects to announce its new global brand ambassador – a major Hollywood A-lister – very shortly. Heinrich Deichmann, the CEO of Deichmann Group, says: “The UK is already a significant contributor to the Deichmann success story. “Like the rest of the world we have had to contend with the economic slowdown but, last year, we saw Deichmann UK sell 2.8 million shoes and increase its turnover by 32% to £42.3m. “The Group continues to grow its operations across the world and exceed the annual targets that we set. “We aren’t reliant on capital investment from third parties and this has meant that we have not had to slow down any of the plans we had in place before the global banking crisis took hold. “Our ongoing success however is less about our financial affairs.
“Ultimately it comes down to consistently offering people a wide range of fashionable, well-made shoes at unbeatable prices.” In February this year Deichmann Group, still entirely owned by the founding family, announced that its global revenue rose for 2010 by 12.5% (6% like-for-like) up from €3.4 billion to €3.93 billion.
In the past year it has sold more than 152 million pairs of shoes (10% more than in 2009) in markets stretching from Turkey to the US. Over half (55%) of the company’s turnover comes from outside of Germany.Traditionally, a British shoe retailer would want each of its outlets to be approximately 1,500 square feet, but Deichmann’s rack room (i.e. self-service) presentation requires greater floorspace (between 3,500-5,000 square feet), allowing customers to look for their own shoes and size instead of relying on a shop assistant to find them another style, size or colour. The shoes are presented in their original boxes, sorted by brands and ready to try on.
Rack room presentation was imported into Europe in the 1980s by Deichmann and has since been replicated by many competitors including Brantano in the UK.
