The Netherlands’ answer to Woolworths, Hema, is poised to shake up the UK’s value market with its strong own-brand offer as it opens its first store in London tomorrow.

The 2,700 sq ft store in Victoria includes beauty, toys, stationery and confectionery, but larger UK stores, the first of which will open later this month, will also sell home and garden ranges.

Hema chief executive Ronald Van Zetten told Retail Week the retailer’s own-brand proposition will make it stand out in the UK for its quality and pricing.

“We have seen the offer working in Spain,” he said. “We make the ordinary extraordinary. Everything we sell has been designed by us - the concept, the colour. We create trust because of the quality of products.”

Hema has been likened to the pound stores but Van Zetten rejected such comparisons. “We are not Poundland. Our offer will make a difference in the UK market,” he said.

Hema’s average item price will be £3 and it expects to compete with the supermarkets. Van Zetten compared some of Hema’s range to now-defunct UK variety store group Woolworths. It is launching in this country with 6,000 own-brand SKUs, although the group carries 17,000 SKUs.

Hema will initially open three stores in the London area. Its second store in Kingston will measure 4,300 sq ft, trading across two floors and opens on June 27 while a third opens in Bromley’s The Glades shopping centre next month, trading from 4,800 sq ft.

Van Zetten said the three models will help the retailer determine which type of location works.

He intends to open seven more shops around London but said it was too early to say whether it would expand in the rest of the UK. However, Hema will launch a UK website before the end of the year to reach customers outside London.

Hema, which generated sales of €1.2bn in 2012, operates over 600 stores across the Netherlands, France, Germany, Belgium, and Luxembourg.

Phil Wiggenraad, analyst, Retail Week Knowledge Bank

It is ‘Worst’ luck for the Brits as Hema is not bringing its famous smoked sausages to the UK. The retailer – which sells a smoked sausage every three seconds – has decided not to bring its most renowned product to the UK, much to this exiled Dutch analyst’s disappointment.

Such is their popularity, that there is a Hema stand in Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport so Dutch expats can quickly get their sausage fix when they come home.

The retailer seems to have taken the same approach in the UK as it did in France, where it launched in 2009. It adapted to the local market there, with less of a focus on foods and more on general merchandise. 

Ahead of its arrival, Hema has mistakenly been compared to UK discounters.  However, its prices are somewhat higher, although it backs that up with quality that is generally well-regarded in its homeland. The business is also well-known for its quirky and well-designed products and it is perhaps no coincidence that its first UK stores will be in relatively affluent locations.