Marimekko opens flagship store on New York's Fifth Avenue

18 Mar '11

4 min read

Marimekko will open its own flagship store in New York City in the heart of Manhattan in autumn 2011. The shop, with a sales floor area of 350 square metres, will be in one of the busiest blocks in Manhattan's Flatiron District at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Broadway, which enjoys growing popularity as a shopping area for local people.

The district has a concentration of many attractive interior decoration and design shops, cafés and restaurants. The Marimekko showroom opened in New York last autumn will move during the spring to larger premises also in the Flatiron District, near to the new shop. Construction costs for the new shop and the showroom are included in the estimate of the total investments planned for 2011, which was announced earlier.

The new flagship store will be built as an experience-rich meeting place in which Marimekko's varied colours and design idiom will lead the customer from one inspiring mood to the next. The range will embrace all product lines, and it is intended for the shop to act as a showcase for new products in particular.

The shop will be based on the same concept as the flagship store opened in the Kämp Galleria mall in Helsinki in February 2011 – the store in New York will also be designed by the Japanese architectural firm IMA in cooperation with Marimekko's own shop design team.

“Opening a shop of our own in an excellent location in the heart of Manhattan will support our strategy of building up Marimekko's profile and strengthening the brand image. It is crucially important for us to be able to introduce our customers to the whole world of Marimekko in our own way. The new flagship store is also meant to support our online shop, which will be opened in the US this year, and our extensive cooperation with Crate and Barrel.

“However, it is obvious that the steps we have recently taken in the United States and the investments, which are very large in view of the size of the company, are not without risk and that they will require us to take a long view and to have commitment in this heavily contested market,” says President and CEO Mika Ihamuotila.

Marimekko announced on 3 March 2011 that it was building international e-commerce. The first online shop will be opened in the United States, and the aim is to have it up and running in summer 2011. Online retailing will augment and strengthen Marimekko's existing distribution channels.

On 4 February 2011, Marimekko announced that it was expanding its collaboration with the prestigious home furnishings retailer Crate and Barrel. By the end of 2013, Crate and Barrel plans to open 22 new Marimekko shop-in-shops in its stores. The first four of the new shop-in-shops will be opened this spring: on Madison Avenue in New York as well as in Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. In the course of this spring, Crate and Barrel will also open an online shop specialising in Marimekko products within its website. The first Marimekko shop in a Crate and Barrel was opened in the SoHo store in New York City in October 2010.

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