OBI opens in La Spezia and voices new course

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The sign’s 57th shop opened on 1 March. More than 6,000 sq. m. of exhibition space and a large portion dedicated to the garden and outdoor division.

The new store, with an area of 6,100 square meters, will be open 7 days a week and features a
assortment of more than 50,000 products where the gardening macro-sector stands out. The impact is that of a store dense with merchandise, but the brightness and choice of display make for a pleasant visit with many vantage points that allow one to grasp a more comprehensive view of the departments present. A path that began to be seen with the Lonato del Garda store and is further “moved” here.

A methodological choice that is explained by Paolo Alemagna, President of OBI Italia: “As you visit the store you will notice that we have significantly increased the quality and breadth of our offerings on the highest design categories, such as the departments dedicated to tiles, wall tiles, sanitary ware, doors and windows, and we have maintained our historic leadership in the Garden world. But the real news is that we wanted to create space, with a lot less shelves, a lot less linear and has a lot more free floor space that we want to use for promotions but also to present innovations. Spaces are more easily managed to be more responsive to changes related to the flow of seasons but, on which, we also want to engage with industry. Because aoi we have a duty to create the preconditions for contributions from production to be grounded, to constantly enhance the supply.”

A store, therefore with more flexible “hardware” -very interesting floor and wall structures-where the breadth and range of essential products can be maintained and where depth can be supported by the digital catalog.

A visit to the store, once past the usual promotional/seasonal area, continues, immediately finds technical departments such as hand tools, electrical, large machines, and hydraulics on display. Next we move on to the design area with the large space dedicated to the bathroom, flooring/cladding, doors and windows, and wood area. Both the latter department and the bathroom area have design, installation, and installation services. Of particular note is the rental proposal, which is highly visible and included in the technical area of the power tool (often in brico centers it is defiladed in adjacent, inconspicuous areas).

The electrical and hardware departments mirror those of the tool department and then move successively to the decorative offering-which we found to be the most restrained compared to the rest of the assortment-with decorative departments such as lighting, textiles, and paints with a color center. Powerful is the offer dedicated to garden-related merchandise with a rich proposal of machines and, above all, a major display of garden furniture and barbecues, covering nearly 250 square meters.

“In this store we have worked to focus on the product and the aspect related to planning to meet the most complex needs,” explains Matteo Risso, director of the La Spezia store (previously in Mestre) . The goal is to refer to as wide a catchment area as possible, namely La Spezia, and become its reference point for home- and garden-related purchases.”

And on the Garden assortment, Mauro Giroldi, Regional Sales Director of OBI Italy, points out.: “All of our stores at the moment have a strong seasonal platform, but here in La Spezia it has been particularly emphasized thanks in part to the lack of competitors with this type of range. An additional opportunity to attract the La Spezia customer and the surrounding area.”

The new store, built from scratch, was designed to use renewable energy, soil quality restoration, landscaping of green areas , and selection of new plant species. Photovoltaic panels were placed on the roof, electric charging stations were set up, and numerous shrubs and plants were planted and irrigated through a system that uses reclaimed rainwater.

OBI Italy, more about the future and internal organization

The store opening was also an opportunity for the brand-through the president’s words-to make a few statements, following the change in management and the silence that lasted, in fact, more than a year.

In this sense Alemagna stated that: “I don’t think the correct expression is to say ‘OBI is back’ because we have never gone away from the Italian market however, perhaps in recent years we have lost a little bit of brilliance, a little bit of commercial dynamism. I think the work done in 2023 gives us back a somewhat different sign that is more ready to face challenges. A year ago we gave ourselves new, more challenging goals, and we ended 2023 doing much better, not only than the original budget, but also than what we had redefined. It is always good to look at the development of a company’s profitability, but the most important and most positive note for me is that we have started to grow in a major way again, from a turnover point of view and from the point of view of in-store visits. 2023 has not been an easy year, and the fact that we are doing reasonably well in these first two months of 2024 means that, evidently, we were able to do what needed to be done, which is to remind ourselves that we are merchants, that we exist to serve our customers, and that this needed to be put back at the center of our stores.”

In addition to the gradual rearrangement of the format, which is increasingly tending toward a broader and more in-depth proposal of services, one of the distinguishing features of the sign’s new course is the redefinition of the staff organizational system .

In this regard Alemagna explained that:“In this store we have launched a new organizational model that provides for a distribution of tasks and functions by competence.”

For all functions, from internal logistics to administration but especially for sales staff. First, a Welcome Desk was set up at the entrance of the store, a reception desk where the attendant welcomes the customer who does not have particularly complex needs and needs information about the performance of the individual product. In addition, new figures-with differentiated uniforms-have been created, professionals who are ready to accommodate clients with more complex needs and higher planning.

To do this “we have created a team of 65 people mixing people with experience, who come from our other stores, with new people we have trained who come from other backgrounds, not necessarily in large retailers, but always with a background related to the worlds and areas we deal with.”