Retailer keen to drive business with boys’ toys section; putting car buyers in driving seat; flying high in Caribbean; healthy development

ARNOTTS’ NEW management team is planning to freshen up the store as we head into summer. This is part of a €5 million investment by the retailer and its in-store brand “partners”.

Men’s fashions will be consolidated on the ground floor with a new 5,000sq ft technology zone created in the basement alongside a slimmed-down sports offering, which is being relocated.

“We’ll have a dedicated space for Apple [products] and will be bringing some new brands in,” Arnotts’ chief executive Nigel Blow told me this week. “The adjacency of sports and technology is a good one.”

Electronic brands will include Panasonic, Phillips, Sony and Bose.

Arnotts sold out its allocation of the iPad2 – about 250 units – in jig time. “We could have sold a multiple of that,” Blow lamented.

The store is also planning to expand its activities online, including social media, and has hired Dave Evans from Eircom to lead the charge.

“It’s a huge opportunity for us and it’s a game you have to be playing.”

Arnotts’ 2010 results haven’t yet been published. Blow said sales were about 5 per cent off target in December, a crucial month for the business, because of the snow. However, trade “bounced back” in the January sales.

Cosmetics and fashion have done well of late but the bargain basement has “struggled” while the store’s furniture department is quiet. Its Boyers subsidiary is proving to be “incredibly resilient”.

Blow said Arnotts would post a rise in its Ebitda in the year to the end of January 2011, which he hoped to build on in the current year.

Blow was put in charge at Arnotts last year after its lenders – Anglo Irish Bank and Ulster Bank – took control of the business.

“It’s tough out there for all retailers. Our sales are probably a little behind last year but our margins are better. We’re not a million miles away from where we want to be.”