2020 was a challenging year, most especially for the retail business across the globe. Yet, during such turbulent times, after setting up its office in 2019, Hudson’s joint venture in Algeria ‘Premium Brands’ opened a NIKE store in the new mall in Oran and soon will open it’s flagship store in Algiers. The opening of these stores, prove that despite COVID-19, if you understand the consumer market and deliver what it truly desires, success will follow.
Although Premium Brands has only been around for two years, the results speak for themselves. Algeria is already a tough market to penetrate and COVID-19 posed a double challenge. Yet, through expertise and hard work, Premium Brands has excelled in providing the best sport brand (NIKE) to the Algerian market.
Nicolas Vidal, General Manager Premium Brands in North Africa explains how “The Algeria consumer is very emotionally connected with NIKE, and it enthusiastically seeks out performance products and want to buy the apparel and footwear produced by authentic brands”.
Algeria’s Social Landscape
Algeria is classified as an upper middle-income country by the World Bank and has a total population of 42 million, with an average age of 28 years. This relatively young market is increasingly seeking to lead a healthy and active lifestyle as well as the products which can help it do so. “We are pleased to service a young consumer base who is brand conscious and in love with NIKE. Algeria holds great potential, particularly as the population seeks to lead healthier lives, practice more sport, more track and road races as well as crossfit training” explained Mr Vidal.
Together with a collective conscious to increase their running and crossfit activity, the Algerian female population are also motivated to get moving, another priority championed by NIKE.
New Trends and Technology
Besides this, Athleisure, athletic apparel, which is also suitable for day-to-day, has become a growing trend, also within Algeria and the market are buying into iconic products such as Jordan and NIKE Air Force.
With technology becoming an integral part of Algerians’ lifestyles, it is expected that there will be a gradual shift in consumers, shifting their shopping behaviours from offline, to e-commerce. The number of e-commerce customers is reported to have reached 2.45 million in 2017, according to Hootsuite and Jumia surveys, with COVID this has increased exponentially.
Premium Brands realise this potential and are present through the country’s largest e-commerce platforms – Jumia and Bartolis. “The Algerian market have increased their online shopping and more so after it was hit by COVID-19.”
Planning Ahead
The future looks bright and the team in Algeria is working through all the challenges. An impressive 570sqm NIKE store will open in the country’s largest Mall, Bab Ezzouar in November/December 2020. This will be among the biggest mono brand store in Africa.
Premium Brands will open another NIKE store February 2021 within the open-air shopping village – Garden City, in Algiers. A new generation Urban Jungle store dedicated to the sneaker culture which will feature Jordan products will also open within this same mall in the beginning of next year.
“Besides seeing to the ever changing needs of our market, Premium Brands will continue strengthening ties with local retailers and 2021 will call for a further consolidation on this as we seek to increase our co-operation with local partners in this challenging yet interesting and rewarding market” Concluded Mr Vidal.
Premium Brands is a joint venture with Hudson Holdings. Hudson’s head office is in Malta and has subsidiary offices in Italy, Algeria, and Morocco.
