It’s that time of year again. The holidays are upon us and the gift-giving season is here. As you stroll around your favorite shopping destination, you might notice a few new stores and retailers this time around.

Every year, new retailers venture out into new markets, old concepts are tweeked, brands are refreshed and new ideas are introduced. I’ve been a national commercial contractor for more than 20 years, and believe me, I’ve seen it all.

However, recently a new trend has popped up that has caught my interest. International retailers have been venturing into the U.S. market at an astounding rate. We’ve been working on new international retail stores entering this market for years, but the recent combination of low rental rates and less competition from U.S.-based brands has emboldened these retailers like never before.

This has been a boon for the best retail contractors like Englewood Construction Company.

Through our extensive network of national commercial subcontractors and our relationships with hundreds of the best commercial property owners and retail and restaurant architectural firms across the country, we have been fortunate to work with a healthy amount of international retailers in the last few years.

The names of these international retailers read like a who’s-who list of hot retailers and their origins vary greatly: MNG by Mango and Zara from Spain, Michael Hill Jeweler from New Zealand, Silk Trading Co. from England, Lululemon Athletica and Marcello’s Delicatessen from Canada, Salvatore Ferragamo from Italy and Oilily from Sweden.

Interesting note: some of these international retailers even located us by reading Hard Hat Chat. Who knew companies in New Zealand were reading our commercial construction blog?

But I digress…

In my experience, each international retail brand should first go through a sort of incubation period before they hire a national retail general contractor. Jumping right to a brick-and-mortar operation can be risky if you don’t have an established brand name and built-in clientele. That is why successful international retailers generally start off by partnering with a large U.S.-based department store. Introduce the product first through the shelves at a partnering retailer, build the brand name, then launch the stand-alone location.

Of course, finding the right national commercial contractor to build that first stand-alone can make all of the difference. With the pitfalls and difficulties that can come with introducing a brand to a new international market, it’s important to align with the best national contractor with extensive experience and connections across the country. This is where Englewood Construction really makes the grade.

We’ve been to the dance so many times we know all of the missteps that can occur. That’s why we are able to anticipate, make the right moves, and keep our international retailer partners moving smoothly.

The best national contractors will be ready to address the challenges of building for international retailers in the U.S., such as language barriers, measurement conversions, material standards, time zone differences and working with local municipalities.

For all of these reasons, partnering with a savvy, experienced national general contractor makes the best sense for international brands entering the U.S. We feel very fortunate and blessed that we have had the opportunity to work with so many new clients from all over the world. Forming these relationships has opened dozens of new doors for us and significantly expanded our capabilities. Who knows where it will go next?

On that note, keep an eye open for exciting international commercial construction news next year from Englewood. Let’s just say we are updating our passports for 2013…

Chuck Taylor
Director of Operations
Tel: 847-233-9200 x712

Questions? Comments?
You can reach me at chuck.taylor@englewoodconstruction.com
www.EnglewoodConstruction.com