Farmers brings international wow factor to its new department store

Sunday, 22 September 2019

Customers react to Farmers new store in Westfield Newmarket.

Farmers once sold flamethrowers but is now embracing home scents, lego and aspirational homeware brands.

Standing in the middle of the company's newly minted Newmarket store, Farmers' chief executive David Collins said the store was 'an honest, true department store'.

The new 7600 square metres two-level store opened in the new Westfield Newmarket mall last month and is a return to the clearly segmented format of traditional department stores at a time that many Kiwi retailers are banking on online sales.

But Farmers Newmarket is far from outdated, offering modern product lines and brands not previously available in New Zealand, such as cosmetic brand The Ordinary, Collins said.

Farmers Newmarket is a modern take on the traditional department store.

* Auckland's first David Jones will face 'challenging' retail market, expert says

* Kmart set to open first 24/7 store

* Sylvia Park expansion leads to hints of new international retailers**

A men's grooming island is the first of its kind for the company along with a mini lego store and a lingerie department separated from the rest of the store to give shoppers more privacy.

Farmers chief executive David Colins says the company has survived by being responsive to Kiwi preferences.

The home scents section has been expanded, with sophisticated notes of vanilla and jasmine wafting down the aisles nearby.

One customer told Stuff she was taken back by the new store and was struck by just how different it was from what was available elsewhere. Other customers were impressed with the space and design of the store.

At almost $10 million, it is the single biggest investment Farmers has ever made in a store design and represents the company's confidence in traditional bricks and mortar retailing, Collins said.

Retail expert Juanita Neville-Te Rito says Farmers is evolving but progress has been slow coming.

The store features hi-tech lighting and all displays can be moved and changed to keep the store fresh, Collins said.

The Sylvia Park store will feature a similar design when the mall opens mid next year.

Elements of the Newmarket store will also be incorporated into the almost 60 stores nationwide as they come up for refurbishment, Collins said.

But Juanita Neville-Te Rito of retail constancy Retail X said while the Farmers' Newmarket store was a new proposition for New Zealanders, it was similar to what was on offer overseas a few years ago.

'It's fabulous compared to what we have had from Farmers, so the company has been going on a bit of an evolution,' Neville-Te Rito said.

'But what they have in the store, they have just got it to standard really, to what we should expect from a retail experience.'

Flamethrowers and curtains

Farmers traces its history back 110 years when Scottish immigrant Robert Laidlaw started New Zealand's first mail order business, Laidlaw Leeds in 1909, supplying rural communities outside of Auckland.

Farmers has remained an icon for most Kiwis.

The company was so trusted that people would send in blank cheques with a list of what they wanted to buy and the staff would fill in the final amount.

In 1917 Laidlaw Leeds merged with Farmers Union Trading Company, and was renamed the Farmers Trading Company.

'Farmers has always been entwined into the fabric of the community, it has always been a brand that has served the community, it serves the people and people feel like they own the brand,' Collins said.

In 1935, a satisfied customer wrote to Farmers Trading Company: 'Since I purchased the flamethrower some months ago, I have evolved a very efficient way of handling blackberry.'

Another women sent clippings of her wallpaper so staff could ensure the curtains they sent her matched the colours on her walls.

According to business historian Ian Hunter, when that same woman later wanted a lawn mower, she sent in some of he lawn clippings to ensure they got the right cutter.

Laidlaw told customers they would have satisfaction or their money back, a new concept in the New Zealand retail at the time.

By 1960, one in every 10 people had an account with the company.

But it has not been all smooth sailing.

Christmas advertisement for 'Farmers' in The Timaru Herald in 1935

Farmers almost didn't survive the sharemarket crash of 1987.

In the period that followed, Farmers was controlled, first by a consortium of Australian banks and later Deka, the Maori Development Corporation and Foodland Associated.

In 2003, Farmers was bought by its current owners, retailers Anne and David Norman, through their investment company James Pascoes Group.

More recently, the company has faced a series of wage disputes with staff seeking higher wages and better working conditions.

A COMFORTING RETAIL EXPERIENCE

Collins, who was previously managing director of clothing and general merchandise at luxury Australian department store David Jones, has been with Farmers for eight months.

Before that he was a merchandise director at David Jones' South African parent company Woolworths.

Anne and David Norman bought Farmers in 2003, ushering in a period of stability for the company after a rocky 1990s.

Farmers had evolved over time and kept up with changing customer demands, 'without pushing the boundaries too far', he said.

As a result New Zealanders continued to find the store accessible, even homely, he said.

For example, about 70 of the nearly 100 staff in the new store worked at the old Newmarket store, Collins said.

Those people were redeployed to other stores in Auckland while the new store was being built.

Customers walked in on opening day to find familiar faces, he said.

Items have been moved off shelves and incorporated into designed displays.

First Retail managing director Chris Wilkinson said Farmers had a refined business model.

'Pascoes Group also have experience across a range of different categories that feeds into the success of the mothership.'

The company owns a number of jewellery chains in New Zealand and Australia including Pascoes the Jewellery, Whitcoulls book and stationery stores and kitchenware Stevens.

EVERYWHERE AND ONLINE

Beauty is front and centre at Farmers Newmarket.

Domestic and global competition had forced a strategic rethink for Farmers though the ethos has remained the same.

Sitting in the middle of the market, the company faces pressure from big-box stores such as Kmart and The Warehouse as well as going head to head with more traditional department stores such as Smith & Caughey's and David Jones.

Neville-Te Rito said Farmer's was particularly relevant to middle New Zealand.

'If you are really young and hip and cool, you are going to Sephora, you are going to Mar. If you don't have a lot of money, you are going to The Warehouse or Kmart.

'Then, it graduates to Farmers. If you are a family with young kids, its easier to shop there. They have a good loyalty programme. The beauty card is good.

'If you capture hearts, souls and minds then, you will get them into maturity.'

Farmers would probably feel the arrival of David Jones when it opened in the Newmarket mall as well, she said.

But Collins said the competition was good for the company in terms of technological and on-site developments.

Farmers had invested in its online store and introduced click and collect options as well, he said.

'We believe our customers in New Zealand are very tactile, they like to feel things, they like to see demonstrations, they like to try things on. We have a very successful online store but we will never walk away from the service aspect that Farmers is known for.'

The new Sylvia Park store was likely to be the last new store for the forseeable future.

'We pretty much have New Zealand covered,' Collins said.

'Our focus now is about getting the bricks and mortar stores better, improving our service model, getting the right products for our customers, its what we do every day.'

* Comments on this story have now been closed