Red sheds go posh to tap design-conscious shoppers

5:00AM Thursday May 08, 2008
By Errol Kiong

Graham Dickie (left) and Peter Reid, owners of design firm Republic Revolution. Photo / Paul Estcourt

The Warehouse is making a foray into more upmarket homeware as it looks to tap into design-conscious consumers.

The Red Sheds have teamed up with New Zealand designers Peter Reid and Graham Dickie - the force behind the Republic Home stores - to create a range more stylish than their usual offerings.

Warehouse chief Ian Morrice said: "People are much more design conscious today, but it's out of reach of a number of people across New Zealand simply because of the price."

Morrice does not see the move as directly competing with the likes of homeware retailer Briscoes.

"We look at it as an opportunity for us to offer people who shop with The Warehouse more of what they're asking for."

The Republic Revolution range, which includes furniture, artwork, bed linen and tableware, marks the beginning of The Warehouse's Design for Everyone strategy.

The retailer will offer a range of designer-styled offerings, mainly in homeware and apparel.

"This will be the first [move] of a number more that we've got planned over the next 12 months or so."

Reid said his company had worked with The Warehouse for more than a year developing the range.

The pair travelled with the group's buyers in Los Angeles, London and Asia to choose and design many of the pieces, sourced predominantly from Asia.

Morrice said the difficult retailing climate was unlikely to harm the new strategy's success.

"Good design never goes out of fashion."

Forsyth Barr retail analyst Guy Hallwright said it marked a continuation of the company's push into better-quality products.

"I wouldn't say it was going upmarket - it's just going up off the bottom basically, but it's been doing that for quite a while in its electronics categories and so on."

The new range will be available in 47 of the 85 Red Sheds from May 20. A second collection from Reid and Dickie is planned for later this year.