For its return to America, the Paris-based Printemps is not about to go head-to-head against the competition.
Printemps will strive to grab some market share from other upscale multibrand stores in the city like Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale’s, Bergdorf Goodman and Nordstrom. But the new Printemps will be situated miles away from those midtown department store flagships, at One Wall Street in the heart of the financial district. And the Printemps’ plan calls for presenting an assortment and range of services that strives to differentiate, in essence taking a specialty store approach.
“We will try to bring brands to our New York store that are new to the market,” Printemps Group chief executive officer Jean-Marc Bellaiche told WWD on Sunday.
Bellaiche was in New York to address a luncheon meeting of the French Founders business club, held at Manhatta restaurant on Liberty Street, and also for the National Retail Federation’s “Big Show” convention at the Javits Center, which runs through Tuesday.
Bellaiche, a former Tiffany executive and former Boston Consulting Group global leader for the luxury fashion, beauty and department stores sectors, is well aware of how tough it is for foreign retailers to succeed in the U.S. He acknowledged creating the right mix, particularly in a highly competitive and overstored New York market, won’t be easy. Other upscale retailers — domestic and foreign — Galeries Lafayette, Takashimaya, Barneys and Neiman Marcus among them, have come and gone. Lower Manhattan has been difficult for certain luxury players. Saks operated separate women’s and men’s stores in Brookfield Place. Both had short runs. Barneys also once operated in Brookfield Place, but that closed too.
Printemps first came to the U.S. in 1984 when it opened a store on the outskirts of Denver. Three years later, it closed.
“When you open a store outside of your home market, you have to think very local,” Bellaiche said.
During an interview, Bellaiche spelled out much of the strategy for Printemps on Wall Street. He said the assortment will be developed through wholesale buying, with no leased shops anticipated, and that the presentation will be a mix of big brands and newer brands, some of which could be among those designer labels already sold at Printemps in Europe. He said there will be a “wide open” floor plan, as opposed to a series of walled-off branded shops.
“The assortment will be quite balanced between fashion, jewelry, beauty and gifting with a little bit of home and decorative,” Bellaiche said.
There will also be a significant food and beverage presentation, Bellaiche said, with a Champagne bar, a coffee shop, a cocktail bar and a brasserie.
“The service will be super strong,” Bellaiche adding, to accommodate the neighborhood. Printemps will be at the base of a 50-story condominium with 550 units. Among the possible services are a florist and fashion rentals, he said.
There will be two selling floors covering a total of nearly 55,000 square feet. “It’s not going to be a huge store,” Bellaiche said. “We are being very careful with the costs. Our Paris flagship is 10 times bigger. We are coming to New York with humility.”
One striking architectural feature of the deco-style site, which has undergone extensive renovation, is the original “Red Room” which has a very high ceiling and is adorned with dazzling split-glass mosaic tiling. It will be two levels below the main floor and used for events. The first lower level will have office and storage space.
Rather than project a department store aura, the upcoming Printemps aims to be closer to The Webster, the luxury specialty chain which operates nine stores including one in the SoHo section of Manhattan.
The opening of Printemps in New York has been delayed slightly. Bellaiche told WWD that a mid-2024 opening is now targeted. When Printemps first announced last October that it would be locating in New York City, the company indicated an early 2024 opening.
Bellaiche said the company is in the process of deciding whether the store will open with a spring or a fall fashion assortment.
There’s been speculation that Printemps could have considered moving into the former Barneys flagship on Madison Avenue, but Bellaiche explained that was not really an option because the Royal Family of Qatar, which owns Printemps, also owns One Wall Street, a former bank that has undergone an expensive overhaul, and because the Barneys site presents too much space for the Printemps project.
The Barneys flagship is vacant but occasionally used for events. The Winter Show for art, antiques and design was once held there during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Louis Vuitton “200 Trunks, 200 Visionaries” exhibit was held there last year.
Bellaiche said Printemps, which operates 20 stores, is looking at markets to expand in Asia. In the U.S., Bellaiche will monitor the performance of the One Wall Street location before deciding if there should be additional Printemps stores in the U.S., but the company is not looking at other U.S. cities, at least currently, Bellaiche said.
So far, Printemps global expansion includes a store in Doha, Qatar, and e-commerce in Germany and the U.K. Former Saint Laurent, Gucci and Ralph Lauren executive Laura Lendrum is coming on board as the newly appointed CEO for Printemps America. International operations officer Olivier Schaeffer, who joined the group in July 2021, continues to oversee all international expansion.
During the French Founders luncheon, aside from discussing Printemps, Bellaiche, along with Steve Sadove, senior adviser for Mastercard and former CEO and chairman of Saks Inc., and Marie de Foucaud, vice president, strategic alliances at French Founders and founder/CEO of Elovation Consulting, discussed the state of department stores, consumers and the economy.
Bellaiche cited a post-COVID-19 “comeback of department stores,” adding, “Multibrand retail is not dead. We are social animals. Tourists are back in France, but we still miss the Chinese clients.”
“It’s correct to say department stores are doing better,” Sadove said, citing a “reversion” to some pre-pandemic shopping behaviors. Sadove said that before the pandemic, U.S. department stores were “flattish,” referencing their sales performance, while the U.S. retail industry grew 3 to 4 percent in aggregate.
He also cited a “massive shift” in what consumers began purchasing in the past year, away from nesting and home-related products and electronics, to more occasion-based and return-to-office type fashion and experiences. Spending continued despite the lack of government pandemic-related support seen earlier. “Shopping behavior shifted dramatically. Electronics and home were horrible. People wanted to go to restaurants and stores,” versus 2020 and 2021, Sadove said.
But on a three-year basis, Sadove added, spending on electronics, home and apparel is pretty even. He cited a “reversion of the norm. We are back to a place where we used to be.”
Sadove predicted that 2023 “is going to be a challenging year” — especially the first part of the year. Government pandemic-related financial support programs are over, two-thirds of the savings consumers built up during the pandemic is gone and the balance sheet of the consumer is getting stressed, Sadove said. “The lower-income consumer is really in trouble,” Sadove said.
“If I was managing a company, I would be managing my inventories and costs really carefully now. In an environment like this, the high end does well, dollar stores do well, the middle gets squeezed. It’s very tough in the middle.”
But on an optimistic note, Sadove said that for retailers generally, “There are so many opportunities to reinvent. You have marketplaces, resale, retail media networks. There are all these ways of creating new revenue streams that didn’t exist before.”
