The North Face to open second Manchester store

GLOBAL outdoor clothing company The North Face, which has its UK headquarters in Kendal, is to open a second store in Manchester.

The North Face opened its sixth UK store in Glasgow last week and Patrik Frisk, the company’s vice president for Europe, Middle East and Africa, told TheBusinessDesk that it will open another store in Bristol this year, and that Manchester can expect to have a second store by spring 2010.

The company has 40 stores across Europe but plans to increase that to 150 – through a combination of owned and franchised stores – within the next five years. The UK target is to have a store in every major city with a population of around 500,000.

Despite the fact that many high street clothes retailers are struggling, Mr Frisk thinks now is a good time to be opening new outlets. He also said that in doing so, The North Face will bring benefits to those multi-brand outlets in the area that already sell its clothes.

“When we open a store in a city, sales of our products in surrounding retailers increase by about 20 to 25%. A new store raises awareness of the brand but some consumers are still more comfortable shopping in a multi-branded store like Blacks,” he said.

“Most of our wholesale retailers offer a choice of brands, so will only sell a small part of our line. Our own stores give an opportunity to give the comprehensive view of the brand, and to talk about marketing initiatives.

“It means we can grow the brand and give the full picture – you can’t do that in a multi-branded retailer.”

Asked whether there was a danger that the brand could be damaged by becoming too mainstream, Mr Frisk said: “Sometimes it worries me. But if you look at the UK distribution pattern today versus six years ago, it’s the same. Some dealers fall away and some come on board, but the footprint is the same.

“If we are careful with the brand and make sure we don’t leave innovation behind, we can still lead. We have more expeditions to the corners of the earth than any other brand – we don’t pay for that, people buy our gear because their lives depend on it.”

He added that brand control was another good reason for the company to open its own retail stores. “It means we can have a qualitative approach,” he said.

UK turnover was £30m in 2007, and Mr Frisk said the 2008 figures will show strong double digit growth, when they are announced in the next few weeks.

He added that the economic downturn is leading to rapid consolidation in a sector that is small and fragmented.

“On the retail side, wholesale dealers are making choices about which brands to carry – rather than having five or six brands they may have three. One of those would be a local brand, and another a big international one, like us.

“The industry itself is not growing but The North Face is taking market share because of retail consolidation.”