The front seat of luxury for discerning tastebuds
The world’s largest brands are targeting Australian capital cities to roll out in-store cafes and restaurants.
Luxury spending starts with a coffee, perhaps a monogrammed cupcake.
Or that’s the belief of luxury retailers who are installing tea houses and restaurants throughout their boutiques around the world to tap into changing customer demographics.
Hermes, Chanel, Roberto Cavalli and other luxury powerhouses have pioneered the in-store dining experience internationally with rooftop brasseries, boutique cafes and luxury restaurants from Paris to Tokyo. And now, the world’s largest brands are targeting Australian capital cities to roll out the same format in a bid to capitalise on Chinese arrivals and rising discretionary spending levels.
“It’s an untapped market in Australia, and a widespread concept already seen in the world’s largest fashion meccas, including Hong Kong and Macau,” CBRE leasing head Leif Olson said.
“And it’s a way to build on the purchasing experience of existing customers while introducing the brand and making it more accessible to those who aren’t as familiar.”
Mercedes-Benz is leading the charge locally after securing an anchor tenancy at the heart of Lorenz Grollo’s $800 million Rialto Towers redevelopment in Melbourne.
Hermes, Chanel, Dunhill and Armani are understood to be the next movers scouting sites in Melbourne and Sydney in the hope of building on a tradition forged in venues such as Chanel’s Jardin du Tweed in Tokyo and Hermes’s Le Plongeoir restaurant and cafe in a former pool in Paris.
Chinese buyers account for about 30 per cent of luxury sales worldwide, more than 70 per cent of which are bought in overseas markets, according to CBRE’s Luxury Retail 2015.
Local spending habits are also sweetening the appeal of local expansion for retailers.
“It had been spoken about for a number of years, but the success of the market in the past years just made head office feel like the time was right,” Daimler Asia-Pacific marketing manager Jerry Stamoulis said of the group’s decision to expedite local expansion plans and name Melbourne as the seventh destination internationally for a Mercedes-Benz cafe.
The German marque which has already opened cafes under the Mercedes Me name in Hamburg, Moscow and Hong Kong is on track to open a high-end and interactive space later this year.
A smattering of fast cars is likely to be artfully arranged across the cafe’s floor, but a changing roster of international speakers holding public talks, exhibitions on the history and new developments in the brand and a cafe serving the best of local produce will be the bigger focus, Mr Stamoulis said.
“It’s an area where people can interact with the brand in a completely different way to what you would do in a dealership,” Mr Stamoulis said.
“Some people that don’t own a Mercedes-Benz might have a certain perception of the brand that doesn’t marry with who we think we are. This gives us an opportunity to start that conversation.”
Mr Olson agreed, noting that for many brands the cafe was the start of a relationship that would grow over time.
“Not everyone is in a position to splash out on a luxury branded handbag or wallet, but being able to have a coffee or meal at Armani, for example, broadens the brand’s appeal and makes it more accessible for everyone,’’ he said.