LONDON (BRAIN)—Brompton plans to pair with its dealers to open a handful of company branded stores in Asia and Europe in the next year, the company’s marketing manager Emerson Roberts said on Monday.
The first store, called Brompton Junction, opened last March in Kobe, Japan and showcases a range of folding bikes manufactured by the British company. The store also focuses on the commuter lifestyle, displaying a line of Brompton luggage and the company’s new Oratory jacket, a classic English style jacket line with Bamboo fabric and finished with water repellent cotton.
“The whole lifestyle brand thing goes down very well in Japan. The Koreans are also interested,” Roberts said. Most Brompton Junction stores will be opened through existing dealers that want to step up their commitment to the brand with shops in Tokyo and possibly Hamburg, Germany planned in 2012.
Brompton is also looking at opening a lifestyle-oriented store in Shanghai that would be partially owned by the company along with two local business partners.
The location of new Brompton Junction stores will be considered on a case by case basis keeping mindful of potential competition with existing dealers, Roberts said. Brompton Junction shops allow the company to have a bit more control on how the brand is presented to the public.
“We wanted to push our agenda a bit ourselves so consumers are not seeing just what the dealers want them to see but what we want to show them,” Roberts said.
—Nicole Formosa
nformosa@bicycleretailer.com
