Going it alone

Hunter products as far as the eye can see: this is the experience awaiting patrons of the Hunter shops, which stock only the range produced by the German premium manufacturer of collars, leads and harnesses. However, the idea for these stores didn't come from the company itself. "The Hunter shops abroad are not flagship stores. That is to say, they are not our own shops - the proprietors are Hunter fans who are so enthusiastic about the brand that they have committed to it completely and are stocking their shops exclusively with our products," says Luise Jankowski, who works in marketing at Hunter. The first Hunter shop worldwide was opened by a customer in Tokyo, Japan in 2011. Another shop was opened a year later in Prague, Újezd 35, Praha 1 - Malá Strana by shop owner Pavel Staneˇk. In 2013 the store in Hradec Kralove in the Czech Republic was added. A store due to open shortly in Bratislava, Slovakia, will bring the total to four. "A further Hunter store with a retail area of 130 m² is expected to open in Oslo in October 2014, and we and our customer are hoping for great things from this," says Jankowski. The size of the stores varies between 35 m² and 130 m², and the number of employees in the respective stores also varies accordingly. Other shops are in the pipeline too. "A growing number of customers, especially abroad, are approaching us with the request to be allowed to open exclusively Hunter stores. The success achieved proves them right. We are currently processing a wide range of enquiries from Norway, Hong Kong, the USA and Canada," adds Jankowski.
Support from Germany
Jankowski rates the importance of the monobrand stores for the traditional German company as high. "We are very pleased and proud to have developed our brand over the years to the extent that our customers want to open monobrand stores and are so won over by our brand that they don't wish to sell any other products in their shops." They cite the quality of the products and production mainly in Germany as reasons for their commitment. Their own favourable experience of Hunter products plays a key role too. "Some of our customers already had a pet shop and received a growing number of requests from consumers for a particularly large and comprehensive stock of our products. And our range currently comprises around 5 500 articles." Support for ambitious would-be store proprietors comes also from the German head office: "Customers who open such stores are very committed and…