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Could Retail Collaborations Be As Successful As Barbenheimer? 

10th August 2023

LeisureVision Location Intelligence data shows UK leisure landscape is continuing to grow

Exploring Retail Collaborators 

We have all heard about the infamous success of pairings with Barbie and Oppenheimer taking over our office coffee break chats the past few weeks. Within the world of retail, businesses are also venturing out two by two. Greggs’ retail strategy very much mirrors that of Christopher Nolan and Greta Gerwig. Greggs are collaborating with successful British retailers such as Primark, Sainsburys, Tesco and ASDA. 

After a year long collaboration with Primark, this month Greggs have opened a café inside the Primark in the Trinity Centre in Leeds. This is the sixth Tasty by Greggs café in the UK over the past year, seemingly a “match made in heaven.”

Figure 1: Greggs’ latest Tasty opening in Leeds Trinity


As well as “the most instagrammable Greggs the world has ever seen”, the Greggs and Primark collab boasts three sold out collections of clothing and merchandise. This marriage of retailers follows Greggs’ retail location planning strategy, to pursue “new on-the-go locations where people work, shop and travel”.

Greggs have also partnered with well-established grocers. Greggs have cafes within Tesco, Sainsburys and ASDA. There are seven Greggs in Tesco stores nationwide and there are a total of five planned Greggs in ASDA and seven in Sainsburys. They are evidently seeking to broaden their customer base to a wider geodemographic; including shoppers throughout the week and potentially the Grey Pound.

Similarly Tesco have partnered with Creams Cafes, making Creams Café Tesco Café's first ever franchise partner. The first Creams Cafe to open in Tesco launched also this month in Gateshead, Newcastle. The next opened the day after in Maryhill, Glasgow. Tesco’s Creams cafes serve desserts, ice cream, waffles and pancakes, potentially hoping to tap into the same markets as successful dessert places like Heavenly Desserts. 
The cafes, just like Tasty by Greggs, will feature ‘instagrammable’ decorations such as fluorescent signs, to make the café an experience, combing leisure and retail in one. These retail ventures focus on the “Instagram generation”; drawing the new emerging young working adults into each retailers customer base, hoping for brand loyalty for the rest of each customer’s spending lifetimes.

Figure 2: The new Creams Café in Tesco in Newcastle 

Location Analysis of Greggs & Primark

We have used our RetailVision retail location data in our MVPLUS location intelligence software to explore the growing relationship between Greggs and Primark in the UK. As shown below, there are far more Greggs shops in the UK than Primark Shops, with 2182 Greggs and 191 Primark Shops currently. 

Figure 3: Location of Greggs in the UK using MVPLUS

Figure 4: Location of Primark Shops in the UK using MVPLUS

Originating in Newcastle, Greggs has a far more even North/South spread, with clusters in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow. Primark’s first store in the UK was in Derby, but its main clusters are in London and Glasgow. It is noticeable that the hotspots of Greggs and Primark shops in the UK correspond, with clusters in London, Belfast, Glasgow and Birmingham. This shows the compatibility of the two retailers in their network strategies.

Figure 5: Heatmap of Greggs in the UK using MVPLUS

Figure 6: Heatmap of Primark Shops in the UK using MVPLUS

Using our projected population data in MVPLUS, we calculated and mapped the density of people per Primark and density of people per Greggs by Postcode Area. 

Figure 7: Heatmap of density of predicted population per Primark Shops by Postcode Area using MVPLUS

Figure 8: Heatmap of density of predicted population per Greggs Shops by Postcode Area using MVPLUS

The maps reveal differing patterns of the density of projected population per location. There is a high density of people per Primark store in Northern Ireland, Glasgow and throughout postcode areas in the Midlands and the South. Interestingly, the areas with a low density of people per Primark tend to be neighbouring the areas with a high density, showing Primark’s potential awareness of store cannibalisation.

The postcode areas with a high density of people per Greggs are Newcastle, where Greggs originated, South Wales and Glasgow. It is evident that there are far fewer Greggs in the far South and North of Britain, and in Northern Ireland. Further collaboration with Primark could lead to a greater presence in these regions, as Primark has a high density of people per shop in Northern Ireland, Scotland and the far South of the UK. 

Location Planning Opportunities: Areas for Future Collaboration

We analysed the locations of both Greggs and Primark Shops and found three areas where there are no Greggs within 20 kilometres of a Primark shop, a clear opportunity for further collaboration and retail location planning.

Figure 9: Heatmap of the Greggs shops in Cornwall and the Primark Shops, from MVPLUS


The Primark in Truro is 89 kilometres drive from the nearest Greggs, and the area is evidently empty of any Greggs or other Primark shops for over 80 kilometres. This is an obvious spot for more investment and future collaborations, particularly soaking up on the summer tourist trade and travel.

 Figure 10: Heatmap of the Greggs shops in Kent and the Primark Shops, from MVPLUS


The Primark in Folkestone is over 13 kilometres from the nearest Greggs, in Dover, and over 70 kilometres from the Greggs further down the coastline in Hastings. Although possibly a prime location for another Greggs, the southern customer market are less exposed to Greggs and therefore too many Greggs in this region may lead to cannibalisation or low profits due to poor use.

Figure 11: Heatmap of the Greggs shops in Northern Ireland and the Primark Shops, from MVPLUS


In Northern Ireland there are multiple Primark Shops without a Greggs within 20 kilometres. The vast majority of Greggs in Northern Ireland are in Belfast, whereas the Primark Shops are spread throughout the country. This is a potential new market for Greggs to expand, and collaboration with the existing Primark Shops could help them to achieve this in cost effective way.

Conclusion

Whether Greggs and Primark’s retail collaboration will go as viral as Barbenheimer is still to be seen, but the network strategy compatibility, the similar customer profile and pricing strategies and the yin-yang store locations all bode well for a successful retail collaboration. Could retail collaborations rejuvenate you as a British retailer after the impact of COVID-19? Our RetailVision data, MVPLUS and our location planning consultancy services are here to help.

To find out more about GMAP’s intelligence data and software products including MVPLUS, or our location planning consultancy services – get in touch at info@gmap.com. 
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