Three formats tested by C&A

Retailer C&A is to extend tests of a new store format, created by Management Horizons Design and intended to take the chain into the next millennium. The new look is to be trialled in a store in Moers, Germany.

The format was unveiled in the chain’s Guildford branch in mid- November. It was developed in conjunction with a team from C&A for the 2000m2 site. C&A is also testing two further formats, developed in-house, in Leicester and Swindon.

Tony Duncan-Smith of Management Horizons says that the consultancy was given “pretty much a clean canvas” to bring the store up to date.

Although the store retains the existing C&A logo, it is given a new execution.

Free-standing internal walls and a circular walkway have been introduced to improve customer circulation within the store, and a new colour palette has been used. Although the “mechanics” of the original merchandising systems have been retained in the new format, they have been reclad.