Despite the daily raft of gloomy high street headlines, Ardblair Sports Importer is choosing 2019 as the year to back bricks and mortar.
This year they’ve chosen ten independent stores to work with to grow the CMP brand over the summer through concessions.
Simon Tams, Ardblair senior account manager, said: “This is a big commitment for us, but we wanted to take a different approach to grow CMP in the outdoor market.
“Ardblair has chosen to work in partnership with independent retailers, sharing risk and allowing more individuality. Rather than picking the same 20 products for every store, we’re asking the retailers to choose. They know their customer base, they can use their experience to pick what will sell.”
At the same time they’re taking away the pressure of stock control by warehousing it all themselves in the UK; making things more manageable for retailers, and making themselves more indispensable to the retailers.
Simon added: “We’ll be going into the stores, checking stock levels, answering questions, placing point of sale. It’s a learning curve for all of us but we wouldn’t be doing this if we weren’t confident we’ll get results. We are trying to make this as low risk as possible for our retail partners. This is the logical thing to do.”
Dylan Jones, owner of Crib Goch Outdoor World in Llanberis, is one of those retailers. He said: “We’re really looking forward to stocking CMP as a concession. I was impressed with the colour-ways and the fit, and the prices and margins are good. As a small independent you’re just trying to find something different for your customer.
“Simon knows our area really well so he wouldn’t just lumber us with stuff that doesn’t sell. Being able to go up to the showroom and pick from the range makes a big difference. We didn’t feel like we were being pushed into anything. We have a different market up here in Llanberis and it wouldn’t work if you didn’t get the choice.”
