The arrival of TJX’s HomeSense in the UK might appear untimely, but the no-nonsense format could do well in tough times. John Ryan samples the latest addition in Bristol

Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, declared last week that the “nice decade” was over.

He was referring not to a 10-year period in which all has been benign, but to the economy and the chances that the wheels are coming off the UK PLC juggernaut.

For retailers, King’s verdict on non-inflationary constant expansion can hardly have been good news. They have been aware that things are tough at least since the beginning of this year – and rather longer than that in some cases. And there can be few parts of the sector that are more affected by the credit crunch, 10p tax fiascos and plummeting house sales than homewares.

By which reckoning, you might think that now is not the time to open a chain dealing in this commodity. Yet that is what TJX, the US parent of TK Maxx in the UK, has done. The outcome is HomeSense, an edge-of-town format that has so far opened in Cardiff and Poole. And, last week, TJX opened a 14,735 sq ft (1,370 sq m), two-floor branch at the Imperial Park retail development in Bristol.

The rationale for TJX’s move is simple: if consumers are short of cash, a discount homewares format will be popular. The only problem with this is that a value homewares operator exists already – Ikea – and there are others too. However, HomeSense marketing director Deborah Dolce sees things differently. “HomeSense is a proven format for us in the US and Canada, offering quality and brand. From a style point of view, you are going to find everything from contemporary to classic.”

This puts HomeSense, at least in theory, quite a long way away from formats such as Matalan or Primark – both of which have homewares as part of their offer but where the concentration is unremittingly focused on price.

Standing outside the Bristol store, there is little to indicate that this is a value proposition. With its bleached wood, sea-green logo and grey steel and glass canopy, there is little to separate it from its immediate neighbour, Next – at least in terms of the mid-market image it projects.

Walking through the entrance, the first thing that most shoppers will probably notice is the glassware. “We work with a series of branded segments and the glassware segment is obviously very fashionable at the moment. It looks good in the window,” says HomeSense UK managing director Nora Harley.

The glassware is displayed, as in the rest of the store, on relatively basic, white, mid-floor equipment. So if the product doesn’t do the trick, the furnishings are hardly likely to. At the front of the shop, mercifully, this does work and, glancing to the left, the other element that is apparent to visitors is the floor-to-ceiling feature wall that sets the agenda for the shop.

Composed of a series of squares and oblongs, along with HomeSense’s sea-green and assorted plum-brown colours for its palette, this is an outsize chequerboard effectively, with brand messages stamped across it. With legends such as “Unique summer trends”, “Be inspired”, “Quality for less” and “New styles delivered daily”, the HomeSense offer is made clear.

Moving into the rest of the 8,500 sq ft (790 sq m) ground floor, shoppers finds themselves underneath the mezzanine that has been installed. Here are what HomeSense UK marketing manager Jenny Spiers refers to as “table-top” ware and “wall décor”. This translates to a long run of white equipment with photo frames running across part of the centre floor. Going deeper into the interior, there is almost everything from books for coffee tables to Buddhas for… the floor, presumably.

The esoteric nature of the offer means that the stock does the job that would normally be done by in-store displays. Spiers says that HomeSense is a format that has consciously steered clear of roomsets: if it’s cushions you want, they are in the cushion department, rather than anywhere else as accessories to a piece of visual merchandising.

Buddhas of suburbia

There is, however, a single display that merits comment. A gilded wooden throne, priced at close to£700, has a golden Buddha at its feet. This may not be to all tastes, but it is eye-catching. As indeed is the bay of Buddhas located, together with some black porcelain female torsos and wooden costumier’s busts (clothed), along the store’s right-hand perimeter.

This might all sound a little confusing. But one of the points about this store is that it is easy to see from front to back, so in-store navigation is simple. Spiers says that the idea of putting signage on top of some of the equipment was considered, but that this was rejected in favour of having clear sightlines.

Heading upstairs, shoppers enter the world of bathrooms, kitchens and “gourmet food”. The inclusion of the latter – all packeted or bottled – might seem surprising but, located at the front of the mezzanine, it does much to introduce the kitchenware, where branded pots and pans from the likes of Marco Pierre White are used to foster a sense of quality. There is even a wall of non-stick frying pans, power merchandising and category authority, indicating that the TK Maxx ethos of opportunistic buying is alive and well at Bristol’s HomeSense.

The inclusion of food also helps explain the unfussy store equipment. If HomeSense wants to flex the size of individual areas and re-merchandise on an almost daily basis, over-elaborate fixtures are not called for.

Not only that, but none of this is expensive to create. Dolce is quick to remark that HomeSense is an “off-price” model and that the great bulk of the design work has been carried out in-house, adapting the Canadian template for a UK market. Unlike a number of its rivals, however, it does not give the impression of being low-cost and the design work is clearly paying off.

On the subject of direct competition, the nearest comparison that might be made is probably to Home Store + More, the Home Retail Group chain that opened in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, at the end of last year. HomeSense is a world away from this – there are no slatwalls, there is room to move and there is a clear sense of departmental logic, a quality that is almost totally absent at the only Home Store + More to open in the UK so far.

Two more HomeSense stores welcomed their first shoppers this week, in Northampton and Manchester, with Gloucester to follow at the end of the month. Dolce refuses to be drawn on eventual store numbers, but says that the intention is very much that this should be a national chain and that TJX Europe is also interested in a HomeSense portfolio that spans the continent.

TJX released its first-quarter results last week (for the period to the end of April), which showed a 5 per cent like-for-like sales lift in its 220 UK and six German stores. This comes at a time when others are facing double-digit decreases.

The arrival of the new HomeSense fascia seems unlikely to upset the retail group’s apple cart.