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Colchester
Ultra Ready for Business
Retail Combined
with Leisure:
the Future of the
Town Centre
Colchester town centre’s blend of history and 21st
century retailing combine to make it a popular
draw for a catchment that offers a large and
high spending population. The figures speak for
themselves. By 2019 the spend level on comparison
goods in the town will be topping £950m and,
reflecting that, retail employment will increase
by a staggering 2,500 jobs up until 2020.
So, much to celebrate. However, like all town centres,
Colchester faces intense competition from omni-present
online activity which is driving new consumer behaviour. The
town knows it must stay one step ahead by refreshing its retail
offer and capitalising on its mix of retail and leisure attractions.
Colchester Borough Council is working with partners to create
a prosperous town centre and wider borough and to elevate
the town into CACI’s top 50 retail destinations.
The first major improvement project has been Fenwick’s
£38m refurbishment of the town’s former Williams & Griffin
department store in High Street. Opened in 2016, the
transformed store is greatly increased in size from 63,000 sq
ft to 87,000 sq ft. New decor has created a bright and airy
environment built around a large central atrium with
escalators to every floor, new lighting and seating. The store
has introduced new features such as its Handbag Courtyard
and Carluccio’s restaurant. It has also attracted a host of
new fashion brands to Colchester – 70 in number, including
Jo Malone, Bobbi Brown, Tom Ford, Ted Baker, Warehouse,
Tiger of Sweden, LK Bennett and Hobbs.
The store bears a new ‘Fenwick’ branding, Carl Milton,
Managing Director of Fenwick Colchester stresses how
important it has been to replicate and retain some of its
historic features and reflect local characteristics –
Essex’s Crittall windows, the pastel shades of the town’s
Dutch Quarter and fitting rooms that reflect the area’s
nautical connections.
“We have seen this as a coming together of three aspects,”
Carl Milton explains. “There’s the bricks & mortar of today,
the heritage of the area and the town and the heritage of
the store. From our perspective, buying the store here and
planning the modernisation was all about what we could
offer the town, which was progressive fashion. We feel we
are also investing in the future of the town.”
Fenwick’s investment is seen by many as a catalyst for further
improvements to the town centre and it’s not the only retailer
to make such a statement of faith in its future. In 2015
Colchester’s retail market received a huge fillip with an
announcement by leading fashion brand Primark that it was
coming to town and is planning a 2017 opening which will be a
major driver of footfall in the eastern end of the town providing
a catalyst for other new retailers to come to Colchester.
Other retail improvements have taken place in the two major
shopping centres. Lion Walk Shopping Centre saw re-development
in 2008 and further investment in 2013 when former owners,
Sovereign Land, bought the faded Red Lion Yard and invested
£600,000 to create a light boutique retail and café quarter.
Meanwhile, at the fashion-led Culver Square, M&G Real
Estate has been steadfastly attracting first time retailers to
Colchester – the likes of H&M and Superdry.