Leeds based Ormerod Sutton Architects has completed a new state of the art concept store in London for Majestic Wine. The St John’s Wood store is the flagship for Majestic which is the UK’s largest specialist retailer of wine with over 200 outlets.
Ormerod Sutton maintains a strong relationship with Majestic having delivered all of its conversions and internal fit requirements including six new build stores for more than 20 years. It also delivered both HQ buildings with the current conversion featuring a state of the art circular staircase feature.
The transformation of Majestic at St John’s Wood reflects a radical move by the retailer to create a much more immersive shopping experience. It is the first to feature the new logo and carries Its largest ever range of almost 1000 alcoholic lines including 260 fine wines. All wines are also 100% shelved which is not usually possible in standard stores.
The new 3,720 sq ft store has a large dedicated tasting section with feature presentations which allows Majestic to host regular special events. These will range from regional tastings to food and wine matching. A major highlight for the new store is an area operated by fine wine specialists Lay and Wheeler with advisors on hand and enomatic tasting machines to maintain the wine at its best for customers to sample without charge.
With a depth of knowledge of the Majestic brand and all stores, Ormerod Sutton were asked to take project lead on practical design, product specification including bespoke designed furniture. It not only delivered the pioneering project under budget in just ten weeks but also managed the full fit out programme whilst the store remained open to customers which presented many challenges.
Mike Evans, Store Development Manager at Majestic Wines, said, “We value our relationship greatly with Ormerod Sutton which holds a wealth of irreplaceable knowledge about our brand and stores. The team have worked seamlessly to turn our graphical concept into reality whilst at the same time applying cost engineering to keep under budget.
We were able to place our entire trust in Ormerod Sutton to manage the project team and all fundamentals such as health and safety to deliver a new flagship store that we are delighted with.”
Ken Ormerod, founder of Ormerod Sutton, who worked with Majestic on its first major store in Leeds, said, “We were delighted to embrace this new concept challenge for Majestic which always remains ahead of industry trends to create great customer experiences in store.
“Despite our long-lasting partnership, we never become complacent and make sure that all of our team members are involved and have input. Deliverables and return on investment is always critical on such projects and we were delighted to see that the last new concept store that we completed for Majestic in Covent Garden has increased turnover by 50% year on year.
The project shopfitter was NBC Building Contractors and bespoke joinery and shelving were completed by Wanzl.
Ormerod Sutton is retained by Majestic to complete all store design work across the UK and Northern France. Other household brand clients include Kwik Fit, Wex Photo Video, Fixation.
