Partnering up with John Lewis & Partners

Colart UK is pleased to announce the launch of a commercial partnership agreement with John Lewis & Partners, a chain of high-end department stores operating throughout the United Kingdom. Rolling out August 2019 across their full distribution comprising 36 stores and online, John Lewis & Partners will retail a highly curated edit of products from the Colart portfolio of brands including W&N, Reeves, Liquitex and Snazaroo. Anthony Taylor, Commercial Director UK, says “Congratulations to Ian Weaver and Martin Waller with special thanks to the cross-functional collaboration with Supply, Ops and Customer Service for their professional teamwork and tenacity in securing this important win as we continue our transformational plan and deliver our vision to inspire every artist.”

The project in more details…

After the many months of pitch presenting and negotiating with John Lewis, we have now agreed a range of products which will go live in stores from the start of August this year. The buying team have already briefed the stores on the new ranging and the feedback has been very positive which is a great start.

John Lewis were initially interested in the Reeves brand and the portfolio of products, however not only will they sell a selection of Reeves products they will also be stocking a range of Winsor & Newton, Liquitex and Snazaroo products.

In total, a selection of 44 products will be stocked across their store estate, broken down as follows:

Within Winsor & Newton, they will be listing a curated edit including Pro and Brush Marker sets (the new packaging from launch which they are very supportive of), the Fineliner 5 pack, Cotman sets, the new ink 4 packs; the William set and drawing pads. For Reeves, they will range the Complete sets (Oil, Acrylic and WC) along with some PBN’s and SF’s and Pastels (with steps taken to secure stock for this account). Within Liquitex they will range a selection of the Acrylic markers as well as the Starter box and for Snazaroo, the Ultimate party pack and stencils.

JLP are aware of our plans on Reeves and one area we need to work on over the next few months, is what we propose to fill those gaps when Reeves eventually goes. There are a number of company initiatives and projects underway which may form part or all of this solution and in addition to this we will be exploring options including an extension of our W&N / Liquitex offering and exploration of L&B Enfant both internally and with the John Lewis & Partners team.

Aside from Snazaroo, the products will be located in the Stationery area of the stores, with Snazaroo sited in the Partyware section. As the Stationery section will take on a larger share of the floor space, the Partyware section has been reduced, hence a very small amount of Snazaroo being listed initially and at present, only in 8 stores from launch. Given that all the stores are different, in terms of layout and space, the listings by store will also vary.

Not only, will the products be listed in stores, we will also have the full range available on-line with John Lewis & Partners going on to explain that their best performing store is on-line, with a very high conversion rate and that Stationery is a key category for them. Excited by the rich content and assets we have available, John Lewis & Partners look forward to really bringing our products to life, with high level and quantity of imagery, video, tutorials / step by step guides and content to excite, educate and engage with both existing and new entrants to the category.

With the products both available in-store and on-line, “experiential” is important to John Lewis & Partners. We will be exploring ways to enhance our engagement with existing and new customers. Some options we can have are the experience rooms, card holder events, in-store demonstrations and trial/giveaways. There will be a focus on “Off to University” in September with 15 key stores in key university towns which they are looking at creating limited quantities of goody bags which Colart will aim to support.

In terms of ordering and deliveries, all stock will be delivered to their Magna Park DC.

Ian Weaver

Channel Manager High Street