Blogs & Perspectives

2017: The Year of the Curate’s Egg

A quick recap of the past year for European retail

Published

6 years ago

December 12, 2017

John Ryan

The end of the year beckons, and it’s been a tale of mixed fortunes across Europe.

For some, such as supermarket giant Tesco, 2017 will probably be seen as a renaissance. Tesco has unveiled stores with new looks, such as the outpost in Llansamlet, South Wales, and displayed renewed confidence in the face of what might have seemed a discounter onslaught from the likes of German outfits Lidl and Aldi, which also continued to grow apace.

Then there has been the phenomenon of online retailers jumping the digital ditch and becoming physical operators. This trend has gathered momentum during 2017, with Missguided in particular hitting the headlines with stores that seek to put a distance between themselves and more conventional high street players by looking a little like social media brought to life.

Also worth noting has been the continued influx of international retailers into the U.K., which is still used by many as a springboard for setting the European ball rolling. Practically, this has meant Canada Goose setting up a flagship on London’s Regent Street and heritage workwear brand Carhartt opening its European flagship in London earlier this month, amid much fanfare. Australian DIY behemoth Bunnings also arrived in early 2017 and now has a handful of stores across southern England with rapid expansion slated for 2018.

Finally, in spite of what many might view as a difficult year, Australian mall developer Westfield has kept the faith as it takes strides towards opening its first mainland Europe shopping center in Milan at some point in the next three years, all being well – these things take time.

The elephant in the room, however, has been Brexit, the impending departure of the U.K. from the European Union, currently programmed to happen at the end of the first quarter in 2019. This has hit consumer confidence hard in the U.K., and more generally across Europe, although in Germany many retailers have still enjoyed a buoyant year.

Europe in 2017 has been a curate’s egg, good in parts, and this looks likely to be the story as we move inexorably towards 2018.

John Ryan is a journalist covering the retail sector, a role he has fulfilled for more than a decade. As well as being the European Editor of VMSD magazine, he writes for a broad range of publications in the U.K., the U.S. and Germany with a focus on in-store marketing, display and layout, as well as the business of store architecture and design. In a previous life, he was a buyer for C&A, based in London and then Düsseldorf, Germany. He lives and works in London.