The man at the helm of John Lewis’s Solihull store has said he has nothing to fear from the new £100 million New Street station store just seven miles down the road.
Managing director Richard Dearden said the new Birmingham store would be “the lynchpin” in terms of consolidating the retailer’s presence in the Midlands.
“For us it’s about saying we’ve got a strong presence across the Midlands,” he said. “We believe the John Lewis Birmingham store will complete the shopping offer for John Lewis in what is our second city. Really, John Lewis should have an offer there.”
Mr Dearden said the new store, which is due to open in September or October 2014 and is part of the £600 million New Street station development project along with Birmingham City Council and Network Rail, is already ahead of schedule.
He added that the Solihull store had “traded extremely well” since opening for business 11 years ago as the anchor store of the Touchwood shopping centre.
The transformation of Solihull in the wake of Touchwood’s development has propelled it from being a minor player in the regional retailing world to become one of the country’s top shopping destinations.
But Mr Dearden said he was confident the opening of the Birmingham store would not impact upon it adversely and envisages Birmingham customers coming from areas that have yet to be exploited.
“Solihull is a lovely town with a really terrific catchment,” he said. “For us it fits the John Lewis brand perfectly.
“But we made no secret of the fact we wanted a shop in Birmingham. We have done for a number of years but it was about finding the right location.
“The New Street development in Birmingham provides that for us.
“Birmingham will be one of our flagship department stores and we have Leeds coming on board as well.
“As far as Solihull is concerned when Birmingham opens we have done our modelling and worked out where customers come from and it is for customers south, west and east of Solihull.
“If you live north of Birmingham Solihull is a long way to go to. Birmingham will create some key opportunities for customers who are north of the city having easy access to John Lewis.”
The new store is expected to create between 600 and 700 jobs, which in addition to the opening of the smaller Tamworth At Home store means the firm will have created 1,000 new jobs in the Midlands by the time the new Birmingham store opens its doors for business.
The Birmingham and Solihull stores will be virtually identical in size but the floor plans will differ.
“They are similar in actual square footage but we have got better at using our space so we will have the latest and best of what John Lewis has to offer in 150,000 sq ft of selling space,” said Mr Dearden.
Mr Dearden was upbeat by the retailer’s encouraging performance in a sector that still has its difficulties as a result of the downturn.
“We are quietly confident on the back of our first half year results when we outperformed the British Retail Consortium market average by about nine percentage points,” he said. “The second half won’t be quite as strong but we will carry on building.
“We’re not expecting triple figure increases in the second half but we do expect it to be better than last year.”
He admitted John Lewis was still seen as the barometer of the high street retailing world but added that its philosophy continued to be a clear and simple one.
“What we can be clear about - crystal clear - is the fact we offer customers great value for money, underpinned by products and services which we believe are market leading.
“That gives us real confidence in our future sales. Because customers trust us we are a bit of a bellwether of the retail market.”
