Pioneer at 1 000 Meters

Identifying new retail locations is an extremely long drawn out process in Switzerland. For the Swiss, at least, it does have advantages because the outside competitors, especially those from the powerful retail groups from Germany, have an even harder job to snap up attractive retail space. One example is the German garden centre operator Dehner, who gave up its ambitions to enter the Swiss market years ago and settled for a cooperation with the Coop Group instead. Furthermore, the companies, whether Swiss or foreign, are forced to make the most out of the retail space available. Jumbo, number two in the Swiss DIY market hasn't suspended its plans for developing new retail spaces; as there will be big new stores opening next year. They are however currently concentrating on modernising their existing stores and optimising the space and where possible also expanding. "Our strategy is to expand the smaller of our current 41 stores in the whole of Switzerland", explained CEO Jérôme Gilg. Jumbo's internal classification of its store portfolio identifies four categories: the smallest format comprises compact stores with less than 1 200 m² in city centres. The second category is the Jumbo and Jumbo Plus stores with between 3 000 and 5 500 m² and thirdly there are ten Maximo stores with a maximum of 8 000 m² sales area.

In La Chaux-de-Fonds, Jumbo has demonstrated a classic model of how the stores are to be further developed. By expanding the existing retail space by around 60 per cent, enough space has been crea­ted to present a range of more than 60 000 products. In order to achieve this target, the company has invested approximately twelve mio CHF in this project. The store, which formerly had 2 800 m² and therefore classified in the normal Jumbo category, has now been brought up to a Jumbo Plus format with a total sales area of 4 500 m², of which 1 850 m² is interior DIY sales space. An essential element of the modernisation is the massive extension of the garden area. The new glasshouse measures 1 700 m² and the outside sales area is 950 m². Although some compromises have had to be made here with regard to the roof. As heavy snow loads are not uncommon in La Chaux-de-Fonds, where the store is situated at an exact height of 1 000 m, a glass…