Smart currently have two showrooms in the UK. The one at its Eureka building in Peterborough spans two floors and is the biggest at 6,000 square feet plus meeting rooms. The other is at the Abingdon HQ and is 5,000 square feet plus meeting rooms.
Each showroom is refreshed and re-launched twice a year, firstly in August for the forthcoming Spring and Summer ranges and then again in November for Christmas.
The industry’s most prolific developer of new products, Smart typically introduce 400 new products for Spring, Summer and Autumn while the Three Kings Christmas brand normally adds 600 new festive items every year.
As ranges grow in number and content, showroom space has become more and more restricted. Therefore, Smart’s shareholders are investing in the new-build of an additional 95,000 square foot facility just 400m away from their 250,000 square foot Eureka building in the same industrial park. At a cost of £15m, Eureka II will come on stream in 2025 and include 20,000 square feet of premium showroom and meeting room space across 3 floors, tripling Smart’s current capacity.
Showroom visits are extremely popular with Smart’s customers. Being able to spend a day comfortably reviewing the entire Smart collection without distraction is invaluable and affords much more time and focus than is ever possible on a busy exhibition stand. Most customers visit one of Smart’s showrooms twice a year, some even more frequently. It is a very effective and congenial way to plan the coming seasons’ purchases for Christmas and for Spring, Summer and Autumn ranges.
Due to the amazing UK success of this format, Smart is soon to open a 5,000 square foot showroom in Lille, Northern France, supporting its fast-growing European business. A large influx of EU visitors are expected from mid-June 2024 onwards and Managing Director Jonathan Stobart was keen to add that UK customers were also very welcome in Lille and would be hosted most warmly, with a French flavour!