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Nike - Long distance retail display projects

Running the distance: turning international challenges into success

Expanding into fast growing economies represents an exciting new market for any retailer, but ensuring brand consistency and in-store design remains the highest quality can be a daunting task for even the world’s biggest brands.  After 14 years of experience working with Nike, Triplar was best placed to provide the resources and expertise to ensure recent factory outlet launches in Russia, South Africa and the Middle East could open on time and on budget.

In Russia, the plan to fit out three stores presented a particular set of barriers, with transport, logistics and cultural differences at the top of the agenda. Import and export procedures presented the first major challenge, but the team ensured everything met customs criteria. Triplar sent invoices with the shipments that allocated a value to the goods on the pallet according to the weight and cost of each item. They also displayed the country of origin for all products – which wasn’t easy as many of the items were from different countries.

Triplar then sent a supervisor to the store to oversee the installation and work closely with the local team. A Russian speaker and an official translator were also employed to ensure things ran smoothly on site. This attention to detail paid off: there were no issues with customs clearance and the store opened on time. 

It was the same story in South Africa. Triplar recently completed three Nike factory stores in the Woodmead and Atterbury areas of Johannesburg, and Kenilworth in Cape Town, despite many potential pitfalls that could have blighted the project.

Both stores have sales areas of 550 m2, within which Triplar’s display team needed to fit the latest fixtures and store graphics. Again, logistics and timings had to be clockwork-smooth as project manager James Freeman explained: “The stores presented a real challenge because all our manufacture and production had to be completed in time to catch the boat from Rotterdam to Johannesburg. As always, making sure shipping and customs paperwork was completed in accordance with correct import regulations required a structured and diligent approach.”

The team worked closely with a South African freight agent in shipping six containers to Johannesburg before undertaking the running of works in-store at Atterbury, and working with Nike-commissioned local install teams at all other stores. The successful completion to the highest standards ensured Triplar have now been commissioned to overhaul a store in Durban.

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