The department store is back
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-metre 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But Farmers Newmarket is far from outdated, offering modern product lines and brands not previously available in New Zealand, such as cosmetic brand The Ordinary, Collins said.
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.
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.
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 it opens mid next year.
Elements of the Newmarket store will also be incorporated into the company’s almost 60 stores nationwide as they come up for refurbishment, Collins said. But Juanita Neville-te Rito, of retail consultancy Retail X, said that 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 is fabulous compared with 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.
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 woman sent clippings of her wallpaper so staff could ensure the curtains they sent her matched the colours on her walls.
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. 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 some discord, with staff seeking higher wages and better working conditions.
A comforting 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.
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.
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 chains in New Zealand and Australia including Pascoes the Jewellers, Whitcoulls book and stationery stores, and kitchenware retailer Stevens.
‘‘Farmers has always been entwined into the fabric of the community.’’ David Collins
Everywhere and online
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 Farmers 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, it is easier to shop there. They have a good loyalty programme. The beauty card is good.’’ 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 onsite developments.
Farmers had invested in its online store and had introduced click and collect options as well, he said.
The new Sylvia Park store was likely to be the last new store for the foreseeable 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.’’