On October 27th mey officially opened its first shop-in-shop with Smith Bradbeer’s new department store in Salisbury. Mey – one of Europe’s leading brands for high-quality women’s and men’s bodywear – will initially focus on the women’s collection with a smaller version in Romsey and a mini version in the New Milton stores of Smith Bradbeer. Underlines interviews Matthias Mey, MD of mey, to find out more about these exciting developments.
Why the move into shop-in-shop in the UK now?
“Mey has evolved in the UK in the last few years. We have built up business relationships with existing and new accounts and shop in shop is the next step in our strategy for growing our business and brand awareness within the UK.
Many of our customers are not fully aware of the strength of our brand yet. We offer high-quality products in the different product categories of bodywear, lingerie, sleepwear and loungewear for men and women and at the same time we have become one of the leading brands in each of the segments offered. By combining these products we can create impressive outfits, the ‘total look’ concept of mey. In our established markets, we have been managing shop-in-shop stores with this concept successfully for years now.”
Matthias Mey, MD of mey
Why partner with Smith Bradbeer for this first step in SIS in the UK?
“We have always had a very open business relationship with Bradbeers and have worked together with their buying team to build the brand organically with them. Shop in shop is our next step with them as a business partner with whom we can collaborate to take the brand forward successfully.”
This shows a serious commitment to the market – what other SIS stores does mey have in Europe?
In our home market of Germany, we run approximately 200 shops in total (18 of them being our own mey mono-brand retail stores). In addition we have five multi-label retail stores under “mes amis” making us multi-brand retailers as well! Outside of Germany, we have shop-in-shop stores in The Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Slovenia and Saudi Arabia. In our closest geographical area, Austria, we not only have SIS stores but also operate mey mono-brand retail stores.
Underlines speaking to Karen Nolan, Lingerie Buyer/Manager for Smith Bradbeer commented: “It has been a labour of love getting this new space ready not just for the new Salisbury store but also for Romsey and New Milton. The area for mey covers approximately 25 square metres and Philip, Guido and everyone at mey have given us great guidance and assistance in making it happen.”
For more information on mey contact UK representative, Philip Horner, on 07943 800483 or Philip.horner@mey.com
