BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
After Valkenburg (Netherlands), Palma de Mallorca (Spain), Vienna (Austria) and Paris (France), Pearl Izumi is opening its fifth factory outlet store in the UK, somewhere in the South East of England.
Starting trading this autumn, the Pearl Izumi factory outlet store has been designed to enhance brand awareness, offer a wider range of clothing and provide extra support to the local specialist dealer network by offering the possibility for end of season overstock return. And there’s also the benefit of getting direct feedback from the end consumer.
The South East store is a joint venture company between Shimano, headquartered in Europe (The Netherlands) and UK distributor Madison. According to the press statement: "Both will work closely together to establish a Pearl Izumi brand store with staff who will be trained as ambassadors for the innovative, technological and endurance clothing brand focused on 3 segments of Ride, Run and Triathlon. Showing a wider range of merchandise in one store is proven to give the consumer a better insight of the Pearl Izumi range."
Lieven Muylaert, project manager Pearl Izumi factory stores, said: “With the opening of our fifth factory store in four years we are able to say that the concept of our factory stores has proven itself. In all local stores we have positive results, a gain in brand awareness and gathering of valuable retail information. With our next factory store in UK we anticipate the same positive results. The planned location suits our factory outlet store concept perfectly. There are many visitors, so we are able to grow our brand awareness in the United Kingdom and the area is well known for its outlet retail space.”
Madison CEO Dominic Langan added: "Pearl Izumi is already enjoying strong growth and increasing brand awareness in the UK but with the opening of a factory outlet store we are able to provide our nationwide network of specialist retailers an even higher level of support. This factory outlet store allows us to underwrite any ranging risks taken by our customers to ensure the end consumer enjoys the best possible Pearl Izumi retail experience, no matter where they are in the UK or Ireland."
So, where’s the new Pearl Izumi factory outlet store going to be? The speculation starts here…
