In our previous blog in this two-part series, we uncovered why France would be a good option for a Gymshark European market expansion and key considerations the brand could take for a successful expansion. Today, we’ll assess which Klepierre retail centres in these high-potential French cities would benefit most from housing a Gymshark in their centre as part of a hypothetical Gymshark French market expansion.

How Retail Footprint Europe could help Klepierre understand which retail centres would benefit from a Gymshark store

While there are many centres in France that would be suitable to bring Gymshark into based on the best shopper profile correlation in a hypothetical Gymshark market expansion, Retail Footprint Europe, CACI’s machine learning catchment model defining catchments for thousands of destinations, has helped determine three particular Klepierre centres that would ultimately become a good fit. With key Gymshark shoppers comprising Affluent Singles & Couples, Affluent Young Families, Middle Income Singles and Student Life profiles from Acorn, CACI’s geodemographic segmentation, these insights were cross-referenced against Retail Footprint Europe insights to equip the business with granular insights and tangible actions to help landlords deduce which centres would work and why.

Finally, to gain insight into actual footfall and compare actual versus expected footfall against these Gymshark profiles and conclude which centres presented opportunities to attract more of Gymshark’s core shoppers, Mobility Data was leveraged.

Saint-Lazare Klepierre in Paris

According to our findings, one of the Klepierre centres that would benefit most from the presence of a Gymshark would be the Saint-Lazare in the Haussmann-Opera retail area. This centre is expected to attract the highest potential of Gymshark’s core shoppers at 43%. Saint-Lazare also has the most affluent profile at an expected 34%. However, the area is home to lower levels of Student Life profiles, with just 1% expected to visit the centre.

Paris houses a strong proportion of premium retailers that align with Gymshark’s offering, with this particular Klepierre centre featuring a blend of competitors and complementary retailers, already housing the likes of Adidas and Nike, which both have similar offerings to Gymshark. Its shopper demographic also lends itself to those who are likely to either be existing Gymshark customers or will become ones once the brand enters the physical market.

Retail Footprint Europe insights for Saint-Lazare Klepierre

The Haussman-Opera retail area holds the third largest clothing and footwear store presence across France, with many premium and broader retailers and a higher percentage of affluent and younger consumers. Our findings also show that people travel well outside of Paris into this area to shop, making it a fantastic location to quickly grow brand reach and exposure.

Acorn insights for Saint-Lazare Klepierre

Saint-Lazare appears to perform the most in line with Gymshark’s core shoppers, with 44% originating from its expected profile according to our Mobility Data findings. This data provides insight on actual footfall and illustrates the comparison between actual and expected versus the Gymshark profile to understand if a centre had an opportunity to attract more of Gymshark’s core shoppers.

As a more premium brand, Gymshark achieves particularly high indexes for affluent consumers, but also performs well with aspiring, younger and urban consumers within the Gymshark core shopper profiles outlined by Acorn. Compared to fellow sportswear brand, Adidas, the brand has a much broader appeal and can perform in-line with their average consumers, while Gymshark performs significantly weaker in these segments.

Centre Commercial Centre Bourse Klepierre in Marseille

Retail Footprint Europe insights for Centre Commercial Centre Bourse Klepierre

Centre Commercial Centre Bourse would be a strong runner up to Paris thanks to its high-performing site in terms of its Clothing and Footwear Score and its high proportion of premium retailers that align with Gymshark’s offering, according to our Retail Footprint Europe findings. However, this centre has a rather low proportion of a young and affluent shopper demographic compared to Saint-Lazare in Paris, which could see the brand running the risk of not attracting the right shoppers upon opening.

Acorn insights for Centre Commercial Centre Bourse Klepierre

Another defining factor behind Centre Commercial Centre Bourse being a suitable location for a French market expansion is due to the city’s likelihood of having the highest proportion of Affluent Young Families (15%) compared to the other locations. According to Acorn, Centre Commercial Centre Bourse in particular attracts 36% of Gymshark’s core shoppers.

Mobility Data insights for Centre Commercial Centre Bourse Klepierre

Marseille sees a 14pp higher proportion of footfall from Gymshark’s shoppers than expected, driven by the centre attracting significantly more Affluent Singles and Couples than expected, according to Mobility Data findings. Centre Commercial Centre Bourse highly reflects Gymshark’s core shoppers (both in expected and actual footfall) and has strong proportions across the different core shopper groups, while Paris is much more concentrated on a singular Affluent group.

This centre ranks 9th out of over 10,000 retail centres for its Clothing & Footwear Score and has a strong premium retail score, even higher than that of Paris. Marseille also only has one competitor in its centre, meaning the addition of another sportswear brand wouldn’t saturate the market, but shows there is demand for this category in the area.

Les Passages Pasteur Klepierre in Besancon

Retail Footprint Europe insights for Les Passages Pasteur Klepierre

Surprisingly, despite this smaller size of this city and inevitably lesser likelihood of Gymshark opening here, it is actually home to a high level of one of Gymshark’s core shopper demographics, Student Life, as seen in our Retail Footprint Europe data. As with Centre Commercial Centre Bourse in Marseilles, Les Passages Pasteur has a strong Clothing and Footwear offering, a substantial percentage of which are classed as premium retail. While Besancon doesn’t have any direct competitor or complimentary brands, this could be navigated with the help of clever marketing strategies.

Acorn insights for Les Passages Pasteur Klepierre

Les Passages Pasteur has a much younger profile that comprises 31% of Gymshark’s core shoppers, with 12% of its catchment expected to be Student Life, based on findings from Acorn. Unlike Centre Commercial Centre Bourse, Les Passages Pasteur has a high percentage of young and affluent shoppers (even higher than Paris), which would ensure that Gymshark was opening to a shopper demographic most likely to shop with the brand. However, the city has the least affluent profile out of the three.

Mobility Data insights for Les Passages Pasteur Klepierre

Les Passages Pasteur appears to attract the most significant amount of Gymshark’s shoppers in real footfall, with 53% of its actual footfall being from Gymshark core shoppers, as seen in our Mobility Data findings. This is because the centre is significantly over-achieving in attracting Student Life (+21pp versus expectation), showing the centre resonates very well with younger shoppers.

Using the data, which Klepierre centre would best perform in France?

With the aforementioned data to consider, the strongest contender for a successful French market expansion for Gymshark would likely come from Centre Commercial Centre Bourse Klepierre. This is due to its strong representation of Gymshark’s core shoppers, both in expected and actual footfall, as well as the proportions across the different core shopper groups compared to the other two cities and centres being more concentrated on a singular group (e.g. Affluent groups in Paris and Student Life in Besancon). With only one competitor in the Centre Commercial Centre Bourse Klepierre, the addition of another sportswear brand won’t oversaturate the market. Instead, it’d reiterate the demand for this category in the area.

Ready to Find Your Next Market?

With insights from Retail Footprint Europe, pinpoint the best locations for your brand’s growth across Europe.

A new sportswear retailer emerges on the international stage.

Gymshark, a fast-growing activewear brand, has been rapidly expanding its global reach and brand presence as it ventures into the world of brick and mortar. Having recently opened new stores in the UK (Stratford City), the Middle East (Dubai) and a pop-up concept in New York City, this brand with a prominent social media and predominately online presence is now rapidly infiltrating physical retail.

Despite not yet launching across wider Europe, it’s only a matter of time before these markets will be ventured into via physical pop-ups and stores. Selecting the right locations out of countless options may be a daunting task that comes with the territory, however. So, once the time comes for Gymshark to decide which locations to expand into that will maximise their increasing growing brand recognition and ROI, how should they effectively go about it?

In this two-part blog series, we’ll walk you through a hypothetical European market expansion for Gymshark in France, sharing how the brand can use data to accelerate and enhance their international store network strategies.

Three French cities that demonstrate viable market expansion potential based on insights taken from CACI datasets and segmentation tools will be focused on, as well as key takeaways that Gymshark (or brands in a similar position) could consider when it comes to international market expansion.

How France was identified as an optimal location for a Gymshark European expansion

CACI possesses a complete universe of defined retail areas to consider, a detailed understanding of different types of consumers and where they shop. This enables us to guide a brand like Gymshark to maximise success and value from go-to-market strategy and launch through to expanding into broader brand recognition and market share capture.

With this in mind, and with Gymshark expanding into physical and new regions, we investigated European markets that might fit their need should they decide to expand into Europe.

With Gymshark already a brand on CACI’s Brand Dimensions, a dataset tracking hundreds of the UK’s most popular and emerging brands to reveal spend, sales and average transaction value insights, key groups in French Acorn could also be identified.

Key Acorn groups were identified by using Brand Dimensions data followed by selecting key Acorn groups within French Acorn data, which correlated accordingly. In France alone there are over 10,000 retail areas, each with differing levels of existing premium clothing shops and competitors, types of customers, footfall, population and spend.

By comparing this to the expected view from Retail Footprint Europe, we could identify locations that were currently failing to engage Gymshark’s key shoppers but had the opportunity to.

From these collective findings, we were able to conclude the following three French locations that could benefit from the opening of Gymshark: Paris, Marseille and Besancon.

Why Paris would perform well in a Gymshark France expansion

According to our findings, Paris presents the highest performance potential and should be a primary focus for Gymshark. Aside from being the biggest city in France -an obvious bonus for any brand – Paris presents the best shopper demographic, a strong array of existing premium retailers and the ability to attract the relevant demographic groups that would align to Gymshark’s brand identity of being a premium retailer with similar retailers already in the centre.

Retail Footprint Europe enables the use of transactional data across brands to develop an understanding of the typical Gymshark shopper, brand positioning and establishing criteria for the most suitable locations for Gymshark to consider regarding new store openings.

Considering these criteria, Paris ranked incredibly high on Clothing and Footwear, with the Haussmann-Opera retail area Klepierre centre ranking among the top three across France.

Why Marseille would perform well in a Gymshark France expansion

Marseille presents itself as another viable option as our findings show it to be the middle ground between high affluence profiles and younger, ‘student life’ populations found in other larger, prominent French cities. The city’s strong clothing and footwear and high proportion of premium retailers also contributes to its performance potential. However, its lower ‘young and affluent’ target demographic runs a potential risk.

Why Besancon would perform well in a Gymshark France expansion

Despite Besancon presenting itself as more of a curveball, the granularity of our Retail Footprint findings demonstrate that in spite of its smaller size and lesser known location, the city is home to a strong clothing and retail offering including premium retailers, a high percentage of young and affluent shoppers and is overall more likely to attract the right shoppers.

Key takeaways that Gymshark can consider for a French market expansion

These aforementioned insights would enable Gymshark to better understand their long-term audience capture of sites through physical retail and experiment with different formats and experiential offerings.

Combining Retail Footprint data across Europe with demographic, transactional, brand alignment and footfall data can ultimately be used to shape an evolving store network strategy, and the national view further solidifies an understanding of the entire retail landscape of France.

Through these insights, Gymshark would be able to accelerate store openings with greater confidence and success if or when they decide to expand into Europe.

Ready to Find Your Next Market?

With insights from Retail Footprint Europe, pinpoint the best locations for your brand’s growth across Europe.

Stay tuned for next blog in this two-part series, where we’ll assess which Klepierre centres in these high-performing potential French cities could perform well in a Gymshark French market expansion.

In this final article in our grey belt series combining CACI’s housing demand data with VirginLand’s grey belt site identification, we take a deeper dive into two areas where the impact of the grey belt will be less obvious: London and the South West.

This is not to diminish the overall value of the initiative, but to point out that it is not the single answer to the UK’s housing challenges. To be most effective, grey belt reallocation should be considered alongside other mechanisms to accelerate housing delivery such as brownfield, infill, repurposing and urban regeneration.

How will the grey belt initiative affect London?

Home to over 7 million adults, London is by far the most densely populated region in the UK. As a result, demand for housing is particularly acute in the capital and the conversation is dominated by affordability. It’s easy to see why; house prices are 11 times the average household income, and private rent is 37% of income. Although households in London earn 17% more than the national average, these high prices mean that homes are 59% less affordable to buy and 32% less affordable to rent.

In this context, any initiative to increase the overall supply of housing in this region is welcome; particularly if it’s targeted at the more affordable end of the scale. So, what impact will the grey belt have in London?

Although home to 14% of the population, London can house just 0.4% of all grey belt homes – a total of 1,955 dwellings across 31 sites. This is not for want of green belt (22% of the London region, by area, is currently designated as green belt), but for want of suitable locations that could be re-designated.

Analysis by VirginLand shows that just 0.2% of the available green belt land is likely to be reallocated grey belt, with much of the London’s green belt holding additional designations like Designated Open Space, Country Park, Woodland or Nature Reserve and Conservation Area and Grade 1-3b agricultural land grades.

The challenge in London is also compounded by the location of the sites relative to movers. Being on the outskirts of the urban sprawl, just 11% of all London home movers live within the catchment of the identified sites; roughly 192,000 individuals. Although more than enough to absorb any new homes delivered, the scale of movers puts into perspective how limited the impact would be on demand; if all sites were built out to their fullest, there would be 98 movers for each home.

While there is little doubt that the 31 identified locations would be additive to the overall housing stock, the question is over how much of an impact these limited sites can have on a particularly strained market. With the population set to grow by another 6.1% in the next 10 years, London will need other initiatives, alongside the grey belt, to accelerate housing delivery in more urban neighbourhoods.

How will the grey belt initiative affect the South West?

Just 4.5% of the South West is designated as green belt, well below the national average. It therefore follows that grey belt opportunities in the South West will be similarly limited, and just 228 potential sites have been identified with the combined potential to deliver 11,868 new homes.

While this is not an insignificant number of homes, it represents just 2.2% of the total grey belt opportunity spread across 9.4% of the population. The location of grey belt sites also limits the initiative’s regional impact, as just 18% of the 1.6 million potential South West movers live within the grey belt catchment, against a national average of 36%.

Although limited in scope for the region as a whole, there are some pockets where the grey belt will be more impactful, and the characteristics of the catchment movers in these locations point to the type of homes that should be prioritised.

With concentrations of sites close to urban populations in the likes of Bristol, house-to-earning ratios and rent-to-earning within the grey belt catchment are higher than those outside of it (7.1 times income and 27.4% of income respectively). High concentrations of Family Renters, Tenant Living and Cash-Strapped Families within this catchment, and relatively large sites averaging 1.7 hectares, suggest a particular opportunity to deliver larger mixed neighbourhoods with high levels of rental product.

As with London, the grey belt initiative has the potential to support some of the housing needs of the South West, but an overarching housing strategy for the region should also be mindful of the 82% of home movers that live outside of the grey belt catchment.

How CACI can help?

To learn more about how you can ensure that your developments are meeting the demands of local movers, contact CACI.

Missed the previous blogs? Find the links to the series so far below:

• How grey belt sites will help tackle the UK housing crisis – CACI
• Grey belt sites: what they are, locations & impact on housing – CACI
• Assessing the impact of the grey belt initiative on a National scale – CACI

In the previous blog within this series, CACI assessed the current state of the UK’s house building targets and how grey belt sites can lead to improved outcomes. Today, Virgin Land will dive deeper into what these grey belt sites are, including their locations and projected impact on the future of housing.  

Grey belt sites explained: freeing land for homes

The UK’s ongoing housing crisis has left politicians and planners scrambling for solutions. To address the shortfall, the new Labour government has introduced a fresh approach: grey belt sites. But what exactly does this mean, and how might it help? 

“Grey belt” refers to parts of the green belt that the government believes can be reclassified for development. These areas, while part of the green belt, make limited contributions to the five core purposes of the green belt, like safeguarding the countryside or stopping towns from merging together.

Since they no longer offer much in the way of environmental or spatial benefits, they could now be considered for development under new rules. The grey belt typically consists of previously developed land or parcels with minimal environmental or historical significance.

By shifting these areas from green belt protection to grey belt status, the government hopes to balance the need for housing with environmental sustainability. In practice, grey belt sites include land that may have been industrially or commercially used in the past, or areas close to urban centres that are no longer agriculturally productive.

These sites provide a critical opportunity to deliver housing where it’s most needed, particularly in regions where development has stagnated due to green belt restrictions. 

How many grey belt sites exist & where are they located?

At Virgin Land, we’ve conducted an extensive study and found around 14,000 possible Grey Belt sites across England and Scotland, covering about 17,500 hectares. That’s just over 1% of all Green Belt land in the country, underscoring the selective nature of this reclassification.

Most Grey Belt land can be found in older industrial towns, particularly in the Northwest and Midlands, where a whopping 64% of people in the Northwest live within two miles of a potential site (the national average is 38%). In future blog posts, we’ll take a closer look at the regions across the UK.

How could grey belt sites impact housing?

Reclassifying land as Grey Belt opens up a significant opportunity for housing development, especially in regions where supply has consistently failed to meet demand.

Based on current estimates, if development were to proceed at an average density of 30 dwellings per hectare, the identified Grey Belt sites could accommodate around 525,000 new homes. If densities were to increase to 35 or 40 dwellings per hectare, the number could rise to 610,000 or even 700,000 homes. But even with this potential, the government still wants to focus on brownfield first approach before using any Grey Belt land.

Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) are required to prioritise brownfield sites before considering greenfield or grey belt areas for development.

Future predictions of housing through grey belt sites

The grey belt idea is a big shift in how we think about land use, potentially opening up vast amounts of space for new housing. It’s especially promising for regions like the Northwest and Midlands, where building has been difficult in the past due to green belt restrictions.

However, this isn’t a magic fix—some areas like London and the Southeast still face substantial challenges when it comes to housing. Making the most of grey belt land will take careful planning and input from the public to ensure that the right balance is struck. This new approach could help ease the housing crisis, but only if it’s rolled out thoughtfully. 

How Virgin Land and CACI help?

To find out more about ensuring your developments meet the demands of local movers, contact CACI and they will be touch.

* This insightful blog has been authored by Steve Norman and Sam Bedford from Virgin Land.

 When it comes to purchasing geospatial data for organisations in the Logistics sector, ensuring that you and your business have asked the right questions to secure accurate data will be key to the success of your planning, efficiency and optimisation initiatives. Our new blog series will answer the critical questions you should ask yourself when acquiring geospatial data for yourself or your organisation, from its coverage, accessibility and accuracy to legal sharing and usage.  

What is the meaning of geographic coverage?

Geographic coverage is where the boundaries of the data extend to. For every piece of information that your business acquires, you must define the geographic coverage that you need it for. Without defining the boundary of the data, you could end up with far more data than you need. If you don’t define the geographic coverage, you may not receive all the data that you need. It’s important that you clearly define the geographic coverage for your data requirement.

What elements of geographic coverage through data should you consider before starting your project?

You should consider the geographic coverage that you need at the outset of your project and assess any future needs across multiple countries. Here are some example questions that may help you to ensure your geographic data requirements will be covered: 

• What is the difference between the United Kingdom and Great Britain? 
• If I buy data now for a specific country (e.g. The Netherlands), will it be available at the same detail in another country (e.g. Belgium)? 
• Will the maps and road networks line up across the borders? 
• Does the data cover the small islands around the edges of a country or small neighbouring countries such as Monaco? 
• Which countries offer detailed street level data in major towns and cities vs key roads in urban areas?

Stay tuned for our next post, where we’ll dive into geospatial data analysis and the attribute information that comes with it. 

Our team of experts can help you navigate the intricacies of every dataset in every country across the globe. Download our whitepaper ‘Key questions to ask when buying geospatial data’ to find out more.