Frette, one of the highest-profile luxury textiles brands, has also distinguished itself by becoming its own chief retailer. And the company is eager to expand this part of its business in the United States.
Currently, Frette has 11 U.S. stores, located in New York; Boston (the newest, which opened in September); Chicago; San Francisco; Beverly Hills, Calif.; Palo Alto, Calif.; Costa Mesa, Calif.; Aspen, Colo.; Orlando, Fla.; Manhasset, N.Y.; and Central Valley, N.Y. The stores are sited in malls, outlet centers and (with the recent opening of the Boston location) even in hotels. In addition, ABC Carpet and Home still has its Frette stop-in shop in New York, separate from Frette’s own store.
In November, Frette reopened its New York store, which—according to Paul Raffin, Frette’s global chief executive officer—is “probably the most important in the world from a volume standpoint.” Consumers can also shop for Frette products online, at frette.com.
As the company nears its 150th anniversary in 2010, Frette would like to expand its U.S. retail presence. In an interview with HFN, Raffin detailed the company’s strategy for its retail operation beginning in the New Year.
“I’m looking at our retail locations from a robust model,” he said. “It’s not a store-count strategy, in which we would be pushed to grow fast. We’re looking to grow intelligently.”
The strategy, as Raffin outlined it, involves both the types of locations for the stores and geographic territories. For the former, Frette has a multidimensional strategy that encompasses locations on important shopping streets in cities, outlet centers and A-plus malls; plus metropolitan areas such as Atlanta, Miami and others along the Sunbelt; outlet centers; design centers; and “studio” stores such as the one in Aspen, which Raffin defined as stores with small footprints located in communities where the demographics are weighted toward Frette shoppers.
The new store in Boston has extended the Frette retail strategy into yet another direction, the store is located in the Mandarin Oriental hotel. Raffin said the company will explore more hotel locations.
“This is a perfect vision for the brand,” he said. “Hotels represent the leading edge of shopping for us because we have such a significant hospitality business. People sleep on our products in hotels, enjoy the experience and can then find the products at our shop when they come down to the lobby.”
The Boston store is also presenting the company’s new vision for the Frette brand, which Raffin termed the “T aspect” and described as a good-better-best story. The vertical part of the T will “give consumers a chance to experience Frette not only at the couture level, but also at the $400 level for a bed set,” he said. “We want to make the brand a touch more accessible. At the horizontal level of the T will be the luxury price points.”
The word “experience” plays a huge role in Frette’s marketing, whether it involves the merchandise or the stores. “When people sleep in a fine hotel, they assume they are sleeping on Frette even when they’re not,” Raffin said. “They’re also experiencing Frette towels and bathrobes. People who experience Frette look for our stores because they want to buy it.”
Whether in hotels, malls, outlet centers or design centers, Frette’s stores are crucial to the company’s brand identity, and thus its overall success. “Frette is a small company with few places of distribution,” Raffin said. “We’re better known than our volume would indicate. So there’s a synergistic relationship between the brand and having stores in high-profile areas. The company you keep sets you apart.”—David Gill