Garrel: Strategic retail concept for a strong location

Customer: Municipality of Garrel

Project period: June – December 2024

The project in brief

A functioning retail sector and a diverse range of restaurants are essential for any lively town center. Small towns in particular small towns in particular thrive on a strong retail structure with owner-managed stores and restaurants. These are central components of the local economy, ensure the attractiveness and competitiveness of the location – and serve as meeting points and centers of social life.

This also applies to the municipality of Garrel in the district of Cloppenburg in Lower Saxony: Retail means quality of life – now and in the future. Supported by the Federal Program for Sustainable Town Centres and Centres, the town of Garrel took up the topic of retail again in 2024 and commissioned us to develop a strategic retail concept. development of a strategic retail concept.

In a focused process, we analyzed, discussed and designed the concept together with those responsible in the city – linked by the key objectives :

Strengthening the town center – for central supply
Preserving retail stores – for diversity and attractiveness

The result of the project is an implementation-oriented retail concept in line with the developed strategy and with many concrete measures.

Task and background

The retail concept for the municipality of Garrel was updated and updated in 2019. In 2024, the aim was to develop the heavily data-driven retail concept in a strategic and targeted manner and to fill it with concrete ideas in order to achieve the aforementioned key objectives.

With a clear strategy and forward-looking measures Garrel:

strengthen the strengthenthe quality of the town center as a location for retail and service businesses ,
increase digital visibility,
implement event formats and marketing activities that increase frequency and sales, and
Promote the mix of uses in the center – to avoid vacancies and improve the overall offering in the town.

Garrel town center – current retail structure

In Garrel, the almost classic “dog-bone principle” can be found along the main street, with two local shopping centers in the north and south and owner-managed stores or branches along the main street.

This “street village structure” is a locational advantage for Garrel’s town center, as the businesses on the main street are easily accessible and highly visible to through traffic. However, the quality of life in the town center suffers from the traffic.

Measures workshop: tradespeople discuss ideas for the town center

Our way of working

From analysis to concept

What is the status quo – and where do we want to go? What are the surrounding cities doing – and what makes our city unique? The development of a retail concept is always based on the positioning of a city in the competition between cities.

This is why we look at the overall situation of a city and actively involve key city stakeholders in the project. This not only results in ideas with strong implementation potential, but also a shared understanding of measures – or even an active will to shape the project among those involved.

Analysis and participation formats:

SWOT analysis of the location
Assessment of the retail situation and sector mix
Analysis of shopping and visiting behavior (frequency drivers, customers, etc.)
Talks with the tradespeople
2 workshops on strategy and measures
Coordination with local stakeholders, tradespeople, trade and business associations
Discussion and development of future scenarios for retail development in Garrel

Expectations of the process:

Strengthen personal responsibility – including that of the retailers themselves
City and place marketing – responsible body, clear objectives
External perspective – recommendations and new impetus from the Stadtmanufaktur experts
Checking regulations and specifications

Jointly developed ideas and impulses for a lively center and a strong retail structure in Garrel

Retail concept with catalog of measures

Strengthening the attractiveness of the location, increasing the variety of offers in the town center and supporting local businesses: The retail concept developed individually for Garrel shows potential and prospects – and specifies, measure by measure, how the defined goals can be achieved.

components of the concept:

Formulation of a vision – including challenges and potentials
Draft storyline for retail development
Definition of strategic goals and guidelines
Development of profiling strategies to position Garrel as a retail location
Development of marketing approaches in comparison with the surrounding competitive locations
Development of general recommendations
Development of an implementation-oriented catalog of measures along these 4 fields of action:
- Succession planning, investment promotion and acquisition of new offers
- Quality of stay (“flair”) and experience orientation
- Service and display quality
- Communication and storytelling

The strategic retail concept thus defines the guidelines for the retail and restaurant use of the town center and is therefore of considerable relevance for the project vision of a lively and liveable Hauptstraße 2030, describes an important facet of the town center brand and provides the core arguments for the associated city marketing campaign.

Extract from the strategic retail concept, Garrel

Strategisches Einzelhandelskonzept für Garrel

Strategic retail concept for Garrel: vision, potential and measures on 69 pages

The result: a clear plan – and activated city stakeholders

The comprehensive and at the same time very concrete strategic retail concept for the town of Garrel in Lower Saxony was created within a few months. But that was not the only success of the project:

Through the participation and discussion formats, the tradespeople were sensitized to the challenges and future potential. The strengthened sense of community and commitment were clearly noticeable at the end of the project. In addition, the interaction between the city, the trade and commerce association and the tradespeople improved.

The retail concept was unanimously approved by politicians and the necessary funds were released for implementation. Garrel can take off.

Photos: Stadtmanufaktur