Maidenhead Aquatics has opened a stylish new store in a modern retail park setting in Peterborough.
Maidenhead Aquatics @ Peterborough, which opened earlier this month, is located on the Garden Park retail complex in Eye on the outskirts of city and sits alongside well-known high street names including Hawkin's Bazaar and Cotton Traders, as well as an up-market garden centre.
The Peterborough store is the first in the group to occupy a retail park location. All of the other 100 or so shops in the chain occupying greenhouse-style locations within garden centre groups.
It's clear from the interior and the stock that the chain is going for a different target market with the new store, which has a modern, airy feel, wood laminate floors and stylish new stock tanks, which were fitted by Casco Europe.
Maidenhead Aquatics partner Steve Rudd, who also runs the nearby Crowland branch, said that the new store was aiming at a different clientelle to the chain's other store.
Rudd told pet trade magazine Pet Product Marketing: "I want Crowland to remain the area's specialist store, and if anything get even more specialist, because a lot of people are going to come here for their 'bread-and-butter' fish.
"There are going to be loads of people coming to the store who don't keep fish, just to have a look, and the footfall is really high. We're trying to get the new fishkeepers and generate more business for the Crowland branch."
The Maidenhead Aquatics group now has over 100 stores which are spread across England and Wales.
This article was first published in Pet Product Marketing, the leading magazine for the pet trade. Pet Product Marketing is available free by subscription to eligible members of the pet trade.