Editorial for Store Design Feature in Checkout Ireland - June 2008 2nd Dec 2008

BÄ.RO Lighting is recognized worldwide for providing outstanding retail lighting solutions in the retail sector. For the last twenty years, BÄ.RO has been particularly active in Ireland and has grown its business through consistently developing innovative lighting installations within food and grocery stores throughout the region. Its clients are household names and are some of the leading retailers in Ireland and UK.


Retail lighting trends in the region
It is noteworthy that Irish food retailers are often streets ahead when it comes to retail design. There is a trend towards designing stores that no longer hide lighting fixtures but rather draw attention to them and, more specifically, how and what they illuminate. So whilst product lighting is moving to the forefront in the form of surface mounted and suspended pendant models, store fixtures and fittings tend to be neutral in colour and design so that customers are led to focus on products, not shelving. For example, a fruit and vegetable product display is showcased brilliantly using the BÄ.RO Circinus suspended fixture that emits a light quality that is gentle on the fresh food, reducing wastage through dehydration, while at the same time enhancing the visual appeal of the display. 


Retail trends and C-Store improvements
There has been a vast improvement in convenience store retailing, driven by the demands of a changing market to provide variety and quality, most notably in 18 to 30 year old customers. This younger, fast paced generation wants fast food, quick, chic coffee and healthy smoothies to go, from an environment that is modern and provides a unique shopping “experience”. Convenience stores in Ireland have risen to the challenge and met these demands successfully and it is predicted that this trend will migrate to the UK and result in a 30% increase in the number of these “life experience” stores. 


Trends in customer relationships
Traditionally, BÄ.RO Lighting worked mainly with its customers directly. However today, retail store design has become a lot more sophisticated and it is more than likely that BÄ.RO will be part of a comprehensive team of experts, including store designers, shop fitters, as well as the end retailer, all of whom contribute to build the best retail outlet possible.

BÄ.RO Lighting has an excellent track record in customer relations and customarily works in conjunction with its customer throughout the entire life span of the shop, not just during the fitting phase. Well after lighting design, project management and installation, BÄ.RO continues to partner its clients, providing ongoing customer service that is supported by five local project engineers in Ireland alone who specialize in offering support, technical advice and ongoing maintenance services. 


Latest technology
A major breakthrough in lighting technology in the form of the BÄ.RO Batwing reflector is playing a vital role in producing retail lighting solutions that are preserving goods, reducing fresh produce wastage, lowering energy usage and saving on maintenance and running costs. The new Batwing reflector was put on trial at a well known Dublin retailer, a store that was testing not just its new BÄ.RO lighting solution but its overall interior design detail. When the Batwing was used to illuminate aisle displays, products were brilliantly and equally illuminated whether they were on the top or bottom shelves and substantial savings were achieved for the retailer as both shelving on the left and right of the aisle are simultaneously illuminated from a single central source, economically spaced. This equates to savings on initial lamp purchases and lamp replacement and ongoing electricity usage. This energy efficient product is now routinely specified in all this customer’s stores, 

The light show and tour
BÄ.RO Lighting’s headquarters near Dusseldorf, Germany is home to one of the most comprehensive and modern retail light displays in the world. This unique display showcases different retail goods under different lighting conditions to demonstrate how lighting has such a dramatic effect on visual appeal, preservation and more importantly, the role of lighting in increasing profits for retailers. 

Many of BÄ.RO Lighting’s clients have visited the light show and later taken the complementary tour to some of Europe’s most cutting edge retail outlets to see BÄ.RO products at work. 

Host, Terry Byrne of BÄ.RO Ireland expands, “The light show is in effect a massive carousel rotating in a theatre environment that demonstrates to the seated audience how to install light so that products look their absolute best while the lighting solution costs the absolute least. Visitors have come away truly enlightened – which is exactly what we intended!” 

For further information or to book a BÄ.RO light show and tour, please contact Viv Davies at +353 (0) 12962607 or +44 (0) 161 447 0124 or email to vdavies@baro.co.uk.