Independent retailers rush to set up shop in Birmingham

A RAFT of new retailers have set up shop in one of Birmingham’s showpiece shopping centres.

The four businesses have all opted to open in LinkStreet, the bridge which connects the Bullring with Grand Central.

Included in the quartet is the UK’s first cereal café, Cereal Killer Café, which sells more than 100 different varieties of cereal.

The Birmingham unit will be the eatery’s first outside of London.

Alan Keery, director at Cereal Killer Café, said: “We’ve had the most amazing journey since opening almost two years ago, our customers know that they aren’t just coming for a bowl of cereal, they get the whole cereal experience, and I can’t wait to share that with the people of Birmingham.”

It has opened alongside other new retailers Barber Barber, Irregular Choice and Religion.  

LinkStreet, which underwent an extensive refurbishment last year, is already home to both Pretty Green, the premium menswear label founded by Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher, and menswear brand, Luke 1977.

Both relocated from within the Bullring’s main mall.

Johnny Shanahan, founder of Barber Barber, added: “I chose to come to Birmingham because when I came to see it it was probably the most underrated city in the UK, it’s a fantastic city, full of fantastic people. Bullring is an exceptional facility with brilliant brands and shops and we’re really happy to be a part of it.”

Footwear and accessories brand, Irregular Choice, offers customers a range of women’s, men’s and children’s footwear as well as its own wedding collection and brand collaborations.

Fashion brand, Religion, which boosts a number of celebrity fans, has also selected Birmingham to be the location of its first store outside of London.

Local independent art and homeware brand, Vincent Van Doodle, which had originally opened as a temporary pop-up shop, has now graduated to a shop unit allowing more space to showcase its products.

Michaela Moore, general manager at Bullring, said: “LinkStreet is quickly becoming one of the must-visit shopping areas in the city with a line-up of cool and independent brands such as Cereal Killer Café, Barber Barber and Vincent Van Doodle, ultimately offering a fresh and diverse experience for our customers.”

In addition to the new stores, the centre has been working in partnership with Appear Here to provide five small kiosk spaces allowing for some of the UK’s leading upcoming brands to take short-term pop-up spaces to showcase and sell their products. The brands using these spaces change on a monthly basis meaning the offer is constantly refreshed.

Ross Bailey, CEO and founder of Appear Here, said: “We’re really excited to be working on the LinkStreet project. We have lots of demand for shopping centres, and listing these spaces in LinkStreet means we can give more brands the opportunity to test their ideas in one of the UK’s top retail destinations.

“I also love that we’re placing brands in LinkStreet who you would never normally discover in a shopping centre.”

The opening of the new units comes as data from property analyst LDC and the British Independent Retailers Association (bira) shows that traditional independent shops opened slightly more shops than were closed in the first half of this year.

Independent shops saw an increase of four shops in the six-month period. This is a reversal from the net decline of 194 shops (-0.07%) in the corresponding period last year.

A net growth of 200 units in H1 2016 was one of the main drivers in the growth of independent retailing in the period.

The West Midlands showed the greatest increase in the number of independents during the period. At 159 units, the picture represented a 0.84% improvement on the same period last year, where the figure fell 0.12%.

The region covered the whole spectrum of independents, with Sparkhill claiming the honour of having the UK’s highest percentage of independents at 95% (based on locations with 50+ units). At the opposite end of the spectrum Telford was named as the town with the lowest percentage of independents at only 18.1%, against a UK average of 65% (based on locations with 50+ units).

Alan Hawkins, CEO, British Independent Retailers Association, said: “These results give us a few good examples of how independent retailers are thriving. Particularly in the West Midlands region, which is a growing industrial powerhouse where people have more money to spend which in turn is resulting in more independent shops thriving.”