Early Learning Centre (ELC) opened its second redesigned store-in-store yesterday and Toy World was taken on a tour of the site.
The Manchester ELC store-in-store which also features 20:20’s design
The new shopping destination is located within Bristol’s Mothercare, which is also new, and there was a celebratory event for the community held yesterday morning.
The new store design was created by strategic design consultancy 20.20 and includes interactive play zones. The centre piece of the store is a huge hot air balloon and other play zones include two playhouses, a spelling arch and a solar system arch for children to walk through. There is also a café and indoor play area from Jellybeans.
It is predicted that around 1,000 people attended the opening, which included a visit from Father Christmas, free coffee in the café and free indoor play for the first 300 visitors.
Mothercare and ELC CEO Mark Newton-Jones told Toy World: “We’ve had a fantastic turnout today of around 1,000 people – more than we had for the recent Manchester opening. The new design has been created with the child in mind rather than just the parents. We are moving ELC away from the high street and into out of town locations where families can come for a whole experience rather than to quickly pick up a toy.”
The new shop-in-shop redesign is now being rolled out into each of Mothercare’s new stores across the UK.
An in-depth article on the new store and interview with ELC’s trading director Ryan Murray will appear in Toy World’s December edition.
