The French are known for having some of the best window displays in the world. But when it’s an empty retail unit that needs dressing, they come to the UK for one of the world’s most successful suppliers of virtual shops.
Towns in Normandy and Lot-et-Garonne have now benefitted from the approach taken by Chippenham company City Dressing.
Virtual shops
The first piece of work, installing eight new creative spaces in Domfront, Normandy, resulted in a nomination for best promotional operation at the S.C.O.P.S. award in commercial innovation awarded by CREDOC (centre de recherche pour l’étude et l’observation des conditions de vie) and graduates of the University of Paris – Dauphine.
Clémence Brandolin-Robert, head of economy and commerce at Fumel commune in the Lot-et-Garonne department, saw a report on the award in the French newspaper France Soir and immediately realised how the approach could transform a huge empty eyesore at an historic and important road junction in her own town.
Jeremy Rucker, director of City Dressing, said, “Our approach wins kudos for its artistic appeal but there’s also an important commercial aspect to it. One of our strongest selling points is that 20% of the units we improve get leased within six months of the image going up.
“With so many shops closing during the current recession, this is a tremendous achievement, and the challenge in Fumel was to create an aesthetically pleasing and dramatic image while drawing attention not to the fact that the shop stood empty, but to its potential.”
The result was the covering of three sides of the store with a virtual library measuring over 500sqm. It is the first part of a wider regeneration project in Fumel covering 20 empty shops.
Regeneration project
The actual installation took a team of four a total of 10 hours to complete in late July. The local response has been very positive, he added, with passers-by calling the installation magnificent and inspiring.
But Rucker is used to hearing the “oohs and aahs” that come when people see the results. City Dressing has installed over 2000 virtual shops in windows all across Europe and the UK, not to mention 50 pop up shops, hundreds of lamp column banners and four mega Advent calendars, including one in Liverpool.
Its installation, in Dungannon, Northern Ireland, saw Perry Street transformed from a run-down terrace of derelict and boarded up properties into a living street, complete with new and inviting “interiors” seen through refurbished shop windows. This work was nominated for an Association of Town Centre Management award in July.
Other examples of City Dressing’s work can be found in places like Redcar, Sandwell, Havant and Croydon, where the company has covered between 20-30 shops in each location, and more recently in Newbury and Camberley, each of which have four large dressed units. Much of City Dressing’s work comes from town centre, city centre and business improvement district managers who are members of the ATCM as well as from local authorities and commercial property managing agents. The Town Teams being created as part of the Mary Portas review of the High Street and the government’s response to it are also showing great interest in City Dressing’s approach.