BGN Entrepreneur

Business are devising new ways of reaching customers on the high street by taking short leases and setting up “pop up” shops across the country.
Nottingham designers Debbie Bryan and Sarah Bainton are among those to have spotted the financial sense of renting a vacant shop space in the run-up to Christmas.
By negotiating a three-month lease and a discount on the normal rent of the shop in upmarket West Bridgford, the pair have secured a prime selling space for a fraction of the cost of attending weekend craft fairs.
According to the science and property entrepreneur Ian Laing, it is said that the companies are on life support. Some may bob up but others will disappear or they will be acquired. You might not see receiverships and administrations but you are seeing a hollowing out and a loss of potential. The slowdown in development was particularly damaging for technology companies, due to the stiff competition faced.
Larger retailers are also taking advantage of the vacancies on high streets to set up temporary shops. For instance, HMV has opened 10 temporary shops around Britain, while upmarket department store Harvey Nichols has set up a pop-up food and wine store in Manchester’s Trafford Centre. Even the company behind Marmite is experimenting with a temporary store on Regent Street in Central London, where products such as Marmite sandwich holders and oven gloves will be on sale for 10 weeks.
The availability of short leases has also attracted Phaidon, the book publisher, to become a temporary retailer, with two shops in central London, one in factory outlet centre Bicester Village, Oxfordshire and one in SoHo, New York.
Chairman Richard Schlagman said that the company was a reluctant retailer but felt it had to try due to the decline in its independent book-selling customer base and lack of interest from chain bookshops in niche publications.

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