• Programme Overview
• Day 1
• Day 2
• Day 3
• World Retail Hall of Fame
• Retail Futures Challenge
• Retail Study Tours

Retail Study Tours

London Study Tour - Tuesday, 18 September 2012

Starting at Tower Hill, we will travel to the east end of Oxford Street in London’s West End and then visit new stores that major retailers have opened in the area over the last 12 months.

Following a break for lunch, we will continue to Lambs Conduit Street and Shoreditch in the fashionable east of London, where we will look at some of the independent retailers that have become a feature of the area.

Start: 09.00 Tower Hill

• West End, Lambs Conduit Street and Shoreditch

Arrive at Primark by 09.30am

• West End - Primark Tottenham Court Road
  The leading value fashion retailer opens its second West End store, at the east end of Oxford Street, cementing its hold over bargain-seekers at both ends of this mile-long thoroughfare. Since it arrived in central London in 2007 (at Marble Arch), Primark has been a destination for local shoppers and tourist alike. This store incorporates its latest design and shows there is no let-up in the demand for value fashion.

10.15am John Lewis Food Hall, Oxford Street

• Open for a little over two years now, this collaboration between the department store and its sister retailer, Waitrose, has resulted in a ‘food hall’ that is used as a supermarket by many who work in the area. Rarely anything other than packed, this is food retailing at its best in central London currently.

10.45am Superdry, Regent Street

• The fast-growing casual brand has finally managed to find a site in London’s West End by paying a reputed £12m to former tenant Austin Reed to vacate its flagship in the autumn of 2011. The tour will look at the new store and what has been done to make it different from other Superdry locations as well as gauging its distinctive visual merchandising.

11.15am Hollister, Regent Street

• The young brand of choice for many teens has also been looking for a site for a West End flagship and it beat Superdry in a race to open a shop at this location, which formerly housed the former National Geographic Store. This location also has the advantage that it is just around the corner from its sister brand Abercrombie & Fitch on Savile Row.

11.45am Austin Reed, Regent Street

• We cross the road to the new store that men’s formal retailer Austin Reed opened towards the end of 2011. This is modern luxury retail and shows why the top end of the market has weathered the economic misfortunes of the last 12 months rather better than the middle-tier operators. Designed by a local architect, this store shows what is possible when it comes to selling such mundane articles as business shirts and suits.

12.15 - 13.30 Lunch

13.45 Lambs Conduit Street

• One of London’s several areas where upscale independent retailers congregate. This tends to be something of a moveable feast, much like Berlin’s Neue Schónhouser Strasse but this is a street where brands that want recognition, but which do not wish to be mass market are found. Among others, we will look at “Folk” and “Darkroom”. A map with stores of interest along the street will be provided.

14.30 Shoreditch, Topman General Store, Commercial Road

• Topman goes grunge and opens a store that aims to look and behave like an independent retailer. This is a path currently being followed by many retailers who want to move into the space occupied by indies and is likely to prove a growing trend.

15.00 Boxpark

• What is claimed to be the world’s first ‘temporary mall opened in November last year and consists of a series of shopping containers that have been piled on top of each other and turned into shop units. Mainstream, but cultish, brands are the order of the day here with Diesel, Levi’s, One True Saxon and Nike all represented. There are also a number of local indy brands.

15.30 Boxpark tea

16.00 - 16.45 Shoreditch High Street and Redchurch Street

Our final look at independent retailers in east London. Return by coach to Tower Hill for 17.30

Places are limited on these exclusive tours around London’s key retail hubs so register now to avoid disappointment »

Westfield Stratford Tour - Friday 21 September 2012

Departing from the conference at 14,00, this store tour will focus on the Westfield Stratford store that opened in September 2011. Billed by Westfield as Europe’s largest in-city shopping centre, this scheme provides a snapshot of almost everything that is to be found on UK high streets as retailers show off their latest store designs.

Arriving at the centre at 14.15, our first visit will be to Marks & Spencer where we will look at a store interior that is central to the retailer’s future with many of the elements that are on view having already been rolled out to other branches. Of particular interest is the food hall, representing the M&S response to retailers such as Waitrose and Sainsbury’s, both of which have been highly active on the store design front.

From here, we move next door to Forever 21 - the California-based retailer’s third store in the UK and a two-floor testimony to the power of value fashion.

We stay on the centre’s upper level after this, visiting Topshop and River Island and will also view Uniqlo. Reaching the end of the centre we will tour the John Lewis anchor store that was the department store operator’s largest full-line store for two years when it opened last year and which features many redesigned departments,

Descending a level, we will visit Dixons’ Black, the hybrid format that is aimed at the Apple generation and which incorporates the consumer electronics offers of Currys and PC World under one roof.

We will also visit the cathedral-like Apple store - a few doors along the way from this.

We stay in the technology arena for our next visit, which will be to Everything Everywhere and while on this level we will take a coffee at the Starbucks store which represents the coffee retailer's latest thinking.

Following this we will consider the luxury offer in this centre, looking at a number of outlets, before heading to the food village that is on the centre’s lowest level with highlights being Hotel Chocolat Cocoa Grower, Waitrose and Noshers Smoked Salmon Company.

The tour will end with a look at Foyles, the bookshop and literary institution, and we will return to the conference centre by 18.00.

Places are limited on these exclusive tours around London’s key retail hubs so register now to avoid disappointment »