By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Natural Products Global | Delivering the news in your Natural & Organic sectorNatural Products Global | Delivering the news in your Natural & Organic sector
  • Food & Drink
    Food & DrinkShow More
    NutraTea Liquorice & Cinnamon Tea
    August 17, 2022
    Mama Buci Honey
    August 17, 2022
    Panda Liquorice Chocolate Coated
    August 17, 2022
    ‘Bug the new PM’, urges organic industry
    August 17, 2022
    Suma organic herbs and spices
    August 17, 2022
  • Health
    HealthShow More
    WHO bets on Natural Therapies
    August 19, 2022
    Relationship between vitamins and hair health
    August 18, 2022
    Government urged to push for CBD innovation
    August 18, 2022
    Organic 21 Superfoods Cocoa Blend (250g)
    August 17, 2022
    Together Health – NATURALLY EFFECTIVE SUPPLEMENTS
    August 17, 2022
  • Beauty
    BeautyShow More
    New organic facial care from benecos
    August 16, 2022
    Weleda unveils first ever Skin Food TV Commercial
    August 11, 2022
    KinKind in airtime-for-equity deal with UKTV Ventures
    August 1, 2022
    FLO supports The Brigid Alliance as new charitable partner
    August 1, 2022
    Cost of living crisis impacting skincare says UpCircle research
    August 1, 2022
  • Eco Living
    Eco LivingShow More
    FLO supports The Brigid Alliance as new charitable partner
    August 1, 2022
    No more leaks with Organyc’s new organic cotton range
    August 1, 2022
    Organic textile focus with new campaign
    July 20, 2022
    Drive away mosquitoes without destroying biodiversity
    July 11, 2022
    3 Italian Eco Entrepreneurs Changing The Future Of Fashion You Need To Know
    July 11, 2022
  • World News
  • Distributors Wanted
  • Supplier Connections
Reading: Need I say More?
Share
Sign In
Notification Show More
Latest News
WHO bets on Natural Therapies
August 19, 2022
The NEXTY Awards finalists for Natural Products Expo East 2022
August 19, 2022
3 min con Miguel López
August 19, 2022
Relationship between vitamins and hair health
August 18, 2022
Government urged to push for CBD innovation
August 18, 2022
Aa
Natural Products Global | Delivering the news in your Natural & Organic sectorNatural Products Global | Delivering the news in your Natural & Organic sector
Aa
Search
  • Food & Drink
  • Health
  • Beauty
  • Eco Living
  • World News
  • Distributors Wanted
  • Supplier Connections
Have an existing account? Sign In
Follow US
  • Blog
  • Blog
  • Advertise
  • Advertise
© 2022 Foxiz News Network. Ruby Design Company. All Rights Reserved.
Natural Products Global | Delivering the news in your Natural & Organic sector > Blog > Food and Drink > Free From > Need I say More?
EuropeFree FromInterviewsRetailSports Nutrition

Need I say More?

Jim Manson
Jim Manson February 8, 2017
Updated 2017/02/08 at 10:43 AM
Share
11 Min Read
SHARE

Holland & Barrett CEO Peter Aldis talks here with NPN’s Jim Manson about the retailer’s new flagship More store at Marble Arch and how it plans to become a £1 billion business by 2020

In late January Holland & Barrett opened its fourth More store, at the Marble Arch end of London’s Oxford Street. With around 6,000sqft of selling space set over two floors it’s the retailer’s biggest store.

Just a few doors down from Selfridges, the new store occupies some of the expensive retail space in central London. There is a glitzy opening event in full flow when I arrive to meet with Holland & Barrett International’s CEO, Peter Aldis.

On the up
“It’s always been my ambition to grow the retail space,” Aldis tells me, “whether that’s by adding locations or relocating to bigger, more prominent spaces.” He says the More concept (Chester, the first, opened in April 2015) “is getting close to where we’d like it to be – so we’re becoming less of an innovations laboratory as we develop them.”

In recent years Holland & Barrett has been attaching increasing importance to the trend for experiential retail. Aldis says the More format is allowing it to experiment with a number of new shopping concepts. Several of these have proved successful in Chester, he says, including a vegan nail bar, on-the-go protein shake station, and fruit and nut pick n mix station. Marble Arch adds more features, including a very un-Holland & Barrett-like olive bar.

“This store is a very different proposition because of where we are and the footfall we’ve got. So we’re looking to work with potential partners (existing More stores include a V-Bites café and Zenerjii juice bar) about how we use the space downstairs.

Given the very different look and feel of the More stores, is the Aldis confident he is carrying the traditional H&B customer with him? “Yes, without a shadow of doubt. We break out the business into four main areas – and much of it will be instantly recognizable to those traditional customers. VHMS is our core category and historically has been positioned at the front of our stores (at Marble Arch it’s right at the back), There’s food, which has always been crucial, but now includes more speciality foods, free-from and vegan. And we’re now the UK’s biggest retailer of sports nutrition. Yes, there’s lots of completion online in this category but we’ve got a strong edge in store because of the advisors we have on the shop floor, staff who really know what they’re talking about.

“Then there’s beauty. Go back five or six years and we didn’t have a beauty section. We saw a very big opportunity. The total beauty market is worth billions. And although we have a very nice beauty business now it’s still just a fraction of that total market. If you look at ethical beauty and carve that out from the total beauty sector, we have something between 10-25% of that ethical segment. 

It’s the growing list of banned ingredients that earns Holland & Barrett its ethical positioning, says Aldis. “We’re the only national retailer that is paraben-free and SLS-free. We banned micro-plastics a full two years before the Government announced plans to legislate on them. We banned plastic bags well before they became a national issue. We’re always thinking about how we can be ahead of the curve.”

Changing customer
Holland & Barett’s growing beauty offer is bringing a new type of customer through the door. “Beauty is attracting a younger, female customer. We know that from our 10 million strong loyalty programme. And it’s the younger beauty consumer who has the greatest propensity to cross-shop our store.”

While Holland & Barrett “looks at The Body Shop, Lush and Boots” it is determined to offer something distinctive, with broad appeal. Aldis Comments: “We really work hard to make sure we’re not only catering for a white, middle-aged, middle-class customer. The country’s becoming more diverse, so you have to have different beauty ranges for people from different ethnic backgrounds and different beliefs. This is crucially important in London – understanding what people want – as long as it sits within our health and wellbeing framework, our strict buying ethos and what we want to achieve.”

Holland & Barrett is set to continue its aggressive expansion programme into 2017. “We’re going to open around 60 stores this year, the majority in the UK and Ireland, but with some in Benelux. There’s the relationship we have with Tesco, where we are operating store-within-a-store format, and that’s ongoing. We’re also continuing to do about 50 refits a year.”

Footfall first
Aldis doesn’t see obvious value in Holland & Barrett targeting specific consumer groups. “It’s all consumers. When you’re looking for store locations you go where the footfall is. You don’t need to be selective about the demographic in a town, in my opinion.” It’s a view that reflects the changing profile of H&B’s customers. “Certain assumptions were made in in the past, before I was running the business. There was an idea that a Holland & Barrett customer was an ABC1 demographic, probably female, a housewife and had available disposable income. I don’t think that’s the case at all. It’s anyone who cares about their health and wellbeing journey.

“Certain assumptions were made in in the past, before I was running the business. There was an idea that a Holland & Barrett customer was an ABC1 demographic, probably female, a housewife and had available disposable income. I don’t think that’s the case at all. It’s anyone who cares about their health and wellbeing journey”

“It’s often in places with really lower demographics, from an affluence perspective, where we’re very successful. I think certain ethnic groups, culturally, and by upbringing, have very positive attitude towards proactively managing their health. And you don’t always see that in lower demographics in rest of the UK.”

Last year’s deal with Tesco – announced just months after the supermarket giant closed its NutriCentre operation – will be watched closely by retail analysts. Aldis explains that Holland & Barrett’s “ambition is to create opportunity for footfall with consumers that doesn’t involve cannibalizing existing sales”. So far, the plan has been working. “From the experience to date it’s dedicated Tesco consumers who are going out of town shopping – we can tell that from our loyalty database. We’re fishing in a fresh pond in the main – which is great for us.

“It’s great for Tesco too, which is why Matt Davies the CEO of Tesco UK is committed to this. Holland & Barrett is a strong brand that stands for quality, a strong ethos, and products that as an industry we passionately believe in. I think it’s quite clever to make your big Tesco stores more interesting and take shoppers on a more engaging journey. The deals they are doing with us and Arcadia (Topshop, Dorothy Perkins, Burtons and others) is creating something like a mini shopping centre in a big, big Tesco.

Another, perhaps more surprising, development in 2016 was the news that Holland & Barrett would be partnering with the convenience store operator Spar. The partnership has since seen the introduction of branded H&B bays in selected Spar stores in Northern Island.

Comments Aldis: “We started with three Spar stores, then extended it to ten. We’re taking it very slowly and regularly reviewing the figures to see what impact it’s having on local stores. We’re also talking to Spar in the Republic of Ireland as well because we consider there might be a similar opportunity too.”

Billion pound business
Aldis believes that the UK’s growing self-care trend will help Holland & Barrett with its stated ambition to become a £1 billion retailer by 2020. “People more generally are taking care to look after themselves. And if you look at the key stats – on cutting back on caffeine, drinking less, eat more healthily, exercising more; well, I think all these things are going in the right direction for this industry. The more you embrace all of that, the more success as a business you will have.”

Aldis is clearly delighted with the new Marble Arch store. “I’m so proud of this this store. Getting the Holland & Barrett business to where it is has not been without its challenges. But we’ve just completed our 31st consecutive quarter of like-for-like growth. That’s a statistic and measure that I think we really can be proud about.”

Picture: Holland & Barrett International CEO, Peter Aldis, pictured at the retailer’s new flagship store at Marble Arch

You Might Also Like

WHO bets on Natural Therapies

3 min con Miguel López

Relationship between vitamins and hair health

Government urged to push for CBD innovation

Can Eco Labels Help Consumers Shop Smarter? The U.K. Could Find Out Soon.

TAGGED: ethical, featured, Holland & Barrett, London, Marble Arch, natural beauty, organic, Peter Aldis

Sign Up For Daily Newsletter

Be keep up! Get the latest breaking news delivered straight to your inbox.
By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.
Jim Manson February 8, 2017
Share this Article
Facebook TwitterEmail Print
Previous Article Capitalizing on EU organic grant is trade’s biggest opportunity
Next Article “Engaging authentically with customers – that’s our big opportunity”

Stay Connected

Facebook Like
Twitter Follow
Youtube Subscribe

Latest News

WHO bets on Natural Therapies
Europe Iberian Health Iberian News Supplements and Remedies August 19, 2022
The NEXTY Awards finalists for Natural Products Expo East 2022
US & Canada August 19, 2022
3 min con Miguel López
Europe Iberian Food & Drink Interviews NPG Partners August 19, 2022
Relationship between vitamins and hair health
Europe Health and Nutrition Iberian Health Supplements and Remedies August 18, 2022
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/922852467343286272/nzY8awcO_normal.jpg
@NPGalerts
893 Following
686 Followers
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/922852467343286272/nzY8awcO_normal.jpg May 3, 2022
♻️ Forget recycling, a new study has found upcycling to be far more effective. Find out more:… https://t.co/Q0U7FthhhB
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/922852467343286272/nzY8awcO_normal.jpg May 2, 2022
💅 The Natural Beauty Awards winners revealed. Find out more: https://t.co/3hFUUdP19d https://t.co/WxWT0ePhrT
https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/922852467343286272/nzY8awcO_normal.jpg Apr 29, 2022
🤝 Beyond Meat settles investor lawsuit, ahead of battle with former co-manufacturer. Find out more:… https://t.co/G0g3UyiTZx

You Might also Like

EuropeIberian HealthIberian NewsSupplements and Remedies

WHO bets on Natural Therapies

August 19, 2022
EuropeIberian Food & DrinkInterviewsNPG Partners

3 min con Miguel López

August 19, 2022
EuropeHealth and NutritionIberian HealthSupplements and Remedies

Relationship between vitamins and hair health

August 18, 2022
EuropeHealth and NutritionSupplements and Remedies

Government urged to push for CBD innovation

August 18, 2022
//

Natural Products Global is a one-stop global news resource for natural & organic industry professionals.

Natural Products Global is a one-stop global news resource for natural and organic industry professionals. Offering a mix of original content and aggregated news from leading industry websites.

Sign Up for Our Newsletter

Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!

Natural Products Global | Delivering the news in your Natural & Organic sectorNatural Products Global | Delivering the news in your Natural & Organic sector
Follow US

© 2022 Natural Products Global NPG | All Rights Reserved

Sign Up!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest natural & organic industry news delivered to your inbox

Name(Required)
Password(Required)
Strength indicator
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Zero spam, Unsubscribe at any time.

Removed from reading list

Undo
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Lost your password?