Health conscious

Holland & Barrett is planning to open its 600th UK health product store within a couple of years

Published: 14 September, 2007

Page 8

Specialist health products retailer Holland & Barrett is expanding its business in the UK and overseas, including taking on markets where other retailers have failed.

Currently at 507 stores in the UK, the retailer decided in 2001 to take its business concept over to the Republic of Ireland and then onto the Continent by purchasing a business in Holland back in 2003.

The company bought 12 stores in Ireland and rebranded them under the Holland & Barrett banner, and since then the store portfolio has nearly doubled. Meanwhile in Holland the store numbers have gone from 65 at time of purchase to 70.

"It was a very poorly run business when we got it and it had a lot of issues and problems," says Holland & Barrett's managing director Peter Aldis. "But we have had our first extremely positive year there and our Dutch business is beginning to grow."

Aldis explains that in the Dutch market the company is increasing the vitamin range in-store, as the business previously focused on personal care. "We have successfully grown that market and become the specialist retailer in Holland for VMS (vitamins, minerals and supplements)," says Aldis. "VMS are usually sold in big drug stores. We're now succeeding over there where many other retailers have failed."

Aldis is now continuing to look for further opportunities on the Continent, although there are no obvious openings so far: "We do appreciate from our Dutch experience that the biggest criticism of ourselves is that it's difficult to keep so many balls in the air when we take on something that's problematic."

Back in the UK, Aldis hopes to take the store portfolio up to 600 within the next couple of years. "We're well represented throughout the UK," he says. "There are some very obvious towns we're not in but if a customer rings in we are able to direct them to a nearby store. There are many opportunities in central and greater London and we have a requirements list of 200 that includes small towns and market towns where we're not represented."

The retailer is already committed to opening at White City and Wembley in London, and Aldis says there are very few large centres where the retailer is not represented, though he regrets not having secured a unit at White Rose in Leeds when it first opened. In Scotland, the company is just completing on Braehead and is registered for Silverburn. Other recent openings around the country include new stores at Marshall's Yard in Gainsborough; the Market Cross shopping centre in Selby and a relocation to the Newlands shopping centre in Kettering.

The retailer is on the lookout for units with a minimum of 1,000 sq ft of sales area - ideally 1,200 to 1,500 sq ft - in prime locations. In shopping centres, Aldis says Holland & Barrett adds to the tenant mix as the staff passionately believe in the products they sell, and the company is a consistent innovator in finding products that work. The majority of products are manufactured directly by the retailer.

Inevitably the supermarkets and Boots all jump on the bandwagon when Holland & Barrett launches new products in the UK, but Aldis insists that is just a cross they have to bear.

"We are a promoter of products that will make a difference so usually it's specialist and a higher dose than you will find at other retailers," says Aldis. "We hang our hat on the advice our staff can give, and we ensure they're properly trained. Our main competitor is Boots, with 30 per cent of the market, where we have 24 per cent. But staff at Boots are not trained in VMS or alternative therapies and in this day and age when everyone's diet is difficult to keep healthy we provide something different."