The past couple of months have been disastrous for our waistlines here at Innovare Design!
No sooner had we started working with Blondies Kitchen on their new permanent home in Selfridges London, when artisan donut brand Dum Dum Donutterie came along bearing tempting and delicious samples!
These two innovative British bakery brands are at different stages of their F&B retail journey but both satisfy the current consumer appetite for new, authentic and fresh bakery treats.
The global sweet bakery category obviously plays at the indulgent end of the food spectrum. Experimentation is a key driver for the bakery market, and our new clients invest a significant amount of time and love crafting and perfecting their exciting new recipes.
What’s more, they also work hard at building their fan base. They have a good grasp of the power of social media and have built strong communities already on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
But with the current F&B retail market as challenging as it is right now, these agile entrepreneurs understand how important it is to invest in retail design to secure their continued growth.
So our enjoyable task over recent months has been to collaborate creatively with these clients on the expression of their distinctive brands. Our brand immersion sessions have – we cannot lie – been aided by copious product tastings but we bravely rose to the challenge!
We’ve been helping both clients to build on their existing positions of strength to shape their individual retail experiences. And at the heart of it all is a solid understanding of what their loyal customers love about them.
We’ve distilled all our learnings into two fresh fun retail solutions. The first of these, for Blondies Kitchen, recently opened in the food hall of Selfridges London, while the three new Dum Dum Donutterie sites are all still works in progress – so watch this space!
We are super excited to be working with patisserie chef Paul Hurley and his team of great taste innovators at Dum Dum Donutterie on their retail brand development.
With four successful outlets already under their belt, this independent British company is blazing a trail with their high quality artisan donuts. If you haven’t already tried them, look out for their amazing hand-baked, patisserie-based donuts.
We’ve undertaken a review of their brand DNA and are in the process of developing a new retail store concept. The first of their new concept stores should be opening before Christmas.
Meanwhile our retail design concept for dynamic baking duo Blondies Kitchen has just opened in the food hall at Selfridges London. It includes our Instagrammable ‘cookie countdown clock’ which helps build the drama and anticipation of cookie shots, fresh deliveries and product promotions etc.
The launch of this new American-style milk and cookies bar follows a successful pop up at Selfridges back in May. We wish them all the very best in their new permanent home.