Removing shelves, taking out floors, taking down lights – that’s what you do when you build a new shop, isn’t it? Our partner Globetrotter has chosen a different approach with its Re:Think shopfitting concept. And we are grateful that we can go along with them!
Take the new store in Ulm, for example. Around 790 square metres of space in the middle of Ulm city centre – a significant expansion of the previous Globetrotter store in Ulm. ‘For this shop, we are completely reusing existing stock and reusing as much as possible,’ reports our interior designer Antje Uebele. On the one hand, she rummaged through various Globetrotter warehouses where furniture from different stores is stored. On the other hand, Antje searched for exciting pieces of furniture that could be reused, for example on eBay.
And she found what she was looking for: There is a second-hand counter, for example, which is being refurbished for the Globetrotter repair workshop. Or a chemist’s cabinet that Antje found on Ebay classifieds, carpets and an old cash register. A second-hand table and a bench have found a new home in the staff rooms. These are all items that might have ended up in the bulky waste bin, even though they are still in good condition and fully fulfil their purpose.
From Karlsruhe to Münster
In Münster, too, we drew on existing resources to implement the Re:Think shopfitting concept. Here, Antje once again had a special challenge to overcome: the furniture for the new store in North Rhine-Westphalia came from the store in Karlsruhe. In Münster, the task was to integrate it into a completely different floor plan while creating a new look and feel.
The heart of the shop is the three service points: the checkout, the workshop and the club hut. Naturally, we implemented the Re:Think shopfitting concept here as far as possible.
For example, by removing powder-coated perforated sheet metal elements from merchandise tables and integrating them into the new checkout area. This killed two birds with one stone: ‘Customers wanted more wood to be used on the highlight tables, and the perforated sheet metal didn’t end up in the rubbish,’ says Antje happily. Of course, plans like this require a lot of consultation with the production department – luckily, we have our own carpentry workshop in Markdorf.
We were also able to give wood samples from their inventory a new lease of life: arranged in a patchwork pattern, they make the workshop counter in the centre of the store in Münster a real eye-catcher in friendly, light natural tones. The patchwork elements also look great on the highlight back walls.
The club hut serves as a meeting place for all outdoor enthusiasts, who gather here for events or travel lectures – virtual campfire included.
‘In Karlsruhe, the club hut used to consist of stacked wooden beams,’ recalls Antje. In Münster, she has abstracted the forest theme, arranging the beams in a more open and transparent way, so that they are somewhat reminiscent of an oversized game of Mikado.
Because clothing or bags can also be hung on them, this has created an airy yet sheltered space where outdoor enthusiasts can make themselves comfortable.
Of course, the CI colour is also a must in the new store. It makes a special appearance on the upper floor, where Antje has assembled the most beautiful pieces from the large collection of old doors and windows in our materials warehouse to create a large mural, which was then painted accordingly
Re-use, as it says in the textbook. But how do you manage to make the jumble of materials and furniture look good and of high quality in the end? ‘The space-creating elements together with the CI colour concept form a common thread here,’ explains Antje. In the case of the Ulm store, these are spruce frame elements that stand against the wall, but also provide a room structure as partition walls.
The spruce frames and a recyclable floor are pretty much the only things Antje had to order from scratch. ‘The wooden panels for the substructures, on the other hand, we saved from the shredder from our own warehouse,’ she says. The colour concept is based on Globetrotter’s CI colours – in keeping with the outdoor theme, these are various shades of green, which can also be found in the Ulm City Store.
All special elements were built and upcycled in the Knobi production facility. A great opportunity for production to demonstrate its expertise in refurbishment.
‘We have received consistently positive feedback from our customers for the circular approach of keeping products in use for as long as possible and bringing them into closed loops,’ reports Fabian Nendza, Sustainability Manager at Globetrotter. At Globetrotter, this not only applies to shop fitting, but also to the products themselves. Sustainable labels, second-hand sales, buying and selling, product hire and 17 repair workshops show how serious the outdoor retailer is about sustainability. In the repair workshop, which is now also available in Ulm, customers can have jackets, rucksacks etc. repaired, even if they were not purchased from Globetrotter. ‘This closes the circle from shop design and communication to sustainable services and offers,’ explains Fabian Nendza.
For us at Knobis, this is one of the biggest and most important projects we’ve had the honour of working on in terms of sustainable shopfitting. ‘Globetrotter is an absolute pioneer in the industry and we are very grateful for how much we have been able to learn from such a progressive project as the Re:Think shopfitting concept,’ says our Managing Director and owner Jürgen Zahn. After all, Knoblauch operates in sectors that are not sustainable per se. ‘We know that we have a big impact as fitters and it is therefore a central part of our mission and our values that we want to think long-term at all levels – ecologically, economically and socially,’ says Jürgen. This makes it all the more important for Knoblauch to gain experience with lighthouse projects, which in turn benefit other customers who are perhaps just starting out. For interior designer Antje, one thing is clear: ‘I don’t want to do anything else!’ Good that the Münster Re:Think Store is just around the corner!
