Presenting the business at its best

The drycleaner’s art could be described as that of making its customers look good, so all aspects of the shop design must reflect that purpose. The business must give customers the immediate impression that their garments are in good care.

There is more to the image than just a nicely decorated shop. The identity and branding must be clear to build customer loyalty. The shop must provide a practical working environment so staff can serve customers efficiently. Customers must feel encouraged to enter and comfortable about being in the shop.

Branding is all important. Craig Walker, senior partner at the design business, the Walker Consultancy says to get this right you need to identify the shop’s market and type of customer. He looks at the current branding to see if any elements can be included in the new design to give a sense of continuity, especially important for an established and successful business.

For example, when designing new branding for the Blue Dragon Group, the dragon idea had to be kept, but the logo now features just the creature’s front half, for a more modern effect.

Branding and logo must have a clear connection as the logo will have to appear throughout the business, including on the fascia and packaging and in other details. The identity must be clear and simple to translate to all these media. Point of sale must be strong so customers know they are in a specific shop, rather than just a particular type of retailer.

Walker will also look at other aspects, such as the use of props or a special features. The idea of these is to make an impact but without impinging on valuable retail space.

Karen Skuce, marketing manager at shopfitter Routledge and Young, describes her company’s approach to refurbishing a shop. It has two services: working from scratch; or updating and modernising where the role is more advisory. When it designs from scratch, it has to build the right store environment.

“You have to think of the customer and what their impression will be,” says Skuce. “The whole purpose of a refit is to make the most of all sales opportunities.” It visits the site to exchange ideas.

Skuce has a checklist of points that need consideration including ceilings, walls, lighting, and the mechanical and electrical components such as ventilation, air control, duct work and data cables that allow the till to feed information to a head office computer system.

Emergency lighting is another consideration, as are fire alarms.

On the shop front, signage is all important and the exterior may need a repaint or respray.

In an update, says Skuce, we try to keep the cost down while at same time creating maximum impact for the shop’s customers. The change must be noticeable. The customer must realise that the business has invested in improvement. Details have an impact. Standing in the doorway the customer needs to see an area that is bright. It must reflect the customers’ style.

In a drycleaning shop, the counter is very important. It must be functional to make the whole process of handing over clothes easy and convenient.

Meeting regulations is important. Under recent legislation, shops must be accessible to the disabled, and this must be borne in mind. While a ramp is ideal, it is not always practical. This was the case at Blue Dragon, says Skuce. Here a bell at a convenient height for wheelchair users to ring for staff assistance was the solution.

Each drycleaner has a different set of circumstances to deal with when creating the shop’s design, whether the work is done mainly by the owners or whether specialist help is called in.

John and Jackie Duncan opened Buntingford’s Dry Cleaners in Hertfordshire in November last year. They both had definite ideas on design with a clean look the highest priority. John Duncan is a trained carpenter so could do much of the work himself.

Buntingford’s is in a listed building which limited alterations to the outside. They wanted a modern look, but one that complemented the 400-year old building.

They decided to keep an archway in the centre of the interior and indeed have made a feature of it.

This was perhaps one of the starting points for the eventual design. John Duncan says his first thought was how the design would work in practice. Then it was down to cost. The technical details of the equipment installation were dealt with by Renzacci, but other design aspects were worked out by the Duncans.

The customer’s first impressions were important. Everything must look clean, and be easy to clean. John Duncan stresses the importance of this and says the whole shop is cleaned daily.

The colour scheme was influenced by the sage green front, which could not be changed, and for the interior the Duncans looked for greens in brighter shades.

Lighting is important. The reception area is lit by spotlights for effect, but fluorescent lighting is otherwise used throughout, and has been placed over the counter. Lighting is doubled over the work area and counter.

“We took advice on this and were told that fluorescent lights are the closest to natural daylight,” says John Duncan.

Additional lighting has been placed behind the counter’s perspex front and this gives added security at night.

John Duncan’s advice to other drycleaners fitting out a shop is to keep it simple. Think about colours, and especially about the ease of keeping a clean, bright look. Have a daily cleaning plan.

The Duncans will probably redecorate in around 18 months to make sure the paintwork stays looking fresh.

The machine is central to any dycleaning shop and this is where Bob Cave Supplies and Service gets involved.

Traditionally an engineering company that repaired and maintained drycleaning equipment, it moved into selling new drycleaning and finishing machines around 18months to two years ago and this has taken the company into machine installation.

On occasions Bob Cave and his assistant work with a new business and, from a technical view, advise on how the machinery should be positioned and the best engineering solution for connecting the machine to services.

Though mostly involved in the “back end” of the shopfitting business, the company says some cleaners do like the machine at the front, so the appearance of the installation is important. But, the company has always prided itself on high quality work, and wherever the machines are placed will make sure that the installation looks good.

This underlines the point that shopfitting and design have many different aspects.

The machine must take into account the shop space, health and safety – making sure that staff can get to the machine safely, for instance – and other aspects such as the work flow.

Space has been a consideration in the way Bridgnorth Dry Cleaners has been set up.

Unusually for a drycleaning business, this shop has a window display, a feature that first brought the shop to LCN’s attention when a reader noticed it while holidaying in the area.

Director James Wood says this regular feature changes with the season. Towards the end of summer the shop deals with wedding dresses, so the display has a country wedding theme with bride and groom. This is arranged in conjunction with a local bridal shop. In autumn the window will be changed to a scene with leaves and and winter coat to encourage customers to bring their coats in early. At Christmas, a ball gown will be shown, again as a prompt to forthcoming trade.

Inside the shop the arrangement has been constrained by available space. There is little room for storage, so clothes have had to be placed on rails at the front of the shop, rather than out of sight, but this does have the advantage of emphasising that the shop does good business.

The Bridgnorth shop has been open for nine years and the presentation has perhaps evolved gradually, but with thought.

James Wood is obviously conscious of the importance of presentation and has a degree in textile design.

The business is opening a second shop in Shiffnell some 10 miles away. Here the approach will be different. There is room upstairs to store clothes, so a conveyor system has been installed.

The Blue Dragon Group is going through a gradual process of refurbishing its shops, the Beaconsfield and Gerrards Cross and branches being the most recent.

Colin Hill decided to bring in design consultants and shopfitters, working with Craig Walker and with Routledge and Young.

He admits this isn’t the route that would suit every business, but he has found it good value and the refits have definitely had a big impact in increasing business.

Hill feels too that someone outside the business will see aspects that he won’t. For example, the blue colour theme was the obvious choice, given the name, but the use of silver for the motif inside the shop was Craig Walker’s idea and works well, as does the modernising of the logo, getting across the right message.

And he would make the same decision again. The basic design used in the original refit has worked well and is being translated across the shops with variations. He believes that a good image is essential for the business, It needs to be clean, smart, uncluttered and bright.

The shop front must be attractive with good lighting,

When a customer comes into the shop, they must feel welcome so the interior must not be “too sanitised”. Blue Dragon keeps its finished work on show behind the counter.

Some drycleaners prefer, space permitting, to keep this out of sight. He can see their arguments, but personally feels it reassures the customer who may feel that the work must be good if it is on display. The shop also has a display cabinet for its premium service clothes.

Cleanwell Dry Cleaners is a new business that had only just opened when owner Zia Ullah spoke to LCN. However he has been in the retail business for over 20 years. He had a clear idea of what he wanted and researched the possibilities on the internet. Equipment supplier Renzacci advised from the point of view of workflow and location of machines.

The shop has some unusual features. Zia Ullah decided on a metallic floor, rather than the more usual wood, and this is set off by completely white walls, suspended ceilings and mirrored silver lights.

The counters were custom made and are L-shaped. The counter area is kept clear, and the shirt service has a separate counter. Two mirrored wall cabinets house accessories.

The end effect is, as Zia Ullah intended, clear,clean, indeed “cold” but the shop is selling cleanliness and the decor is designed to reflect this.