Noel Leeming has gone back to its Christchurch roots with the re-opening of the facelifted Moorhouse Ave store.

The VIP opening today will be attended by June Leeming, the Mayor of Christchurch, Lianne Dalziel, TWG CEO Nick Grayston and other local VIPs.

Billed as the company’s “most innovative and state-of-the-art retail space to date”, the 2,500m² project has been almost five years in the making and is the biggest store refit Noel Leeming has ever done.

Unique features of the new store include:

• A brand new Services Hub (complete with a specialist service team).
• A Connected Solutions hub (“for all things mobile and broadband”).
• An interactive smart home display.
• An extensive “next generation” Built-in Cooking Centre.
• A smooth looking Apple store-in-store.
• And a wall for Sonos wireless speakers.

The Built-in Cooking Centre includes a Fisher & Paykel “Plan & Choose” area (see our story on F&P’s “Retail 2.0” merchandising programme here). 

This New Generation Retail Display blends together a collage-style selection of kitchen appliances with digital technology to help create a "simplified, immersive and more premium experience" for customers to plan, choose and purchase appliances within a retail store. 

Created with technology partner Satellite Media, F&P's New Generation Retail Display is not a conventional appliance showroom. Instead of rows of individual appliances organised by product type, consumers can visualise Fisher & Paykel products as they would appear in the home. 

Several of Moorhouse Ave's new features are said to be unique to the facelifted store but it will be interesting to see if and how widely they become distributed through the Noel Leeming network over the coming months.

See the photos below: