Client stories from expansion & branch reviews

“They walked every aisle of our Durham unit before talking catchments. The final shortlist cut two towns we had already started chasing — awkward at the time, correct six months later when both high streets lost a key anchor.”

Helena Crowe · regional retail director, North East fashion group · Retail expansion planning

We brought LogicKernel in ahead of three lease renewals. Two branches got a clear remodel brief; one was marked for exit. I still wish they had been softer with the store manager in the exit conversation — the recommendation was right, the delivery could have been gentler.

Marcus Ellison · owner, six-store homewares chain · Branch performance review

The catchment assessment on a proposed Cheshire unit took eleven days and saved us from signing a fifteen-year lease opposite a rival that had not yet announced its own opening. Short, specific, and usable in a board pack the same week.

Priya Nandhra · operations lead, specialty food retailer · Catchment assessment

Our expansion pack included an opening calendar that finally aligned recruitment with fit-out. We had been treating those as separate problems; seeing them on one timeline changed how we briefed contractors.

Tom Hargreaves · managing director, outdoor apparel stores · Retail expansion planning

Extended story: sorting a stubborn midlands cluster

A twelve-branch pharmacy-adjacent health retailer asked us to review four midlands stores whose weekly take had drifted for eighteen months. Visits showed two sites suffered from parking changes after a council scheme; one had a range still aimed at a demographic that had moved; the fourth was simply over-rented relative to its catchment.

The client renewed two leases with remodel conditions, relocated the range assortment in the third, and negotiated an early exit on the fourth. The work did not invent new customers — it stopped the estate from funding a location that could no longer earn its keep.