Home Co
Home Consortium (Home Co) has a portfolio of 35 contemporary convenience and lifestyle shopping assets in metro growth locations and regional areas across Australia.
In 2020, Home Co set about finding a national supplier to create a bespoke, brand consistent suite of Christmas displays across the country. Following a tender process, CDS was selected based upon our designs, price, production and logistical capability. The project was a great success despite the challenges of 2020.
Project Challenges
2020 brought its significant challenges on top of those inherent in the project. The onset of Covid meant budgets were even tighter than originally planned, access to facilities and people made more difficult etc.
The project challenge was to visualise a solution that would work across a diverse asset portfolio and that could be uniformly implemented throughout the country. In addition the solution needed to reflect the contemporary positioning of the brand while appealing to a diverse socio demographic market.
Also, the client wished to find a decorating solution with a relatively low annual recurring cost in terms of install and dismantle fees. The final solution met all of those criteria.
In the first year we designed and made two basic products which we knew after site inspections, either singularly or together would fit every centre. Our choice was to use only 2 products, a contemporary cigar shaped bauble garland with leaf tip LEDs and a contemporary holographic spiral cone tree with internal hanging baubles.
The colour scheme in candy apple red and gold was considered timeless and a nod to tradition and local cultures. Two sizes of tree, 2.8M and 4.8M were manufactured in our engineering workshop.
The product solution needed to address a couple of issues. Firstly we needed to find a solution that for many geographically remote or smaller centres could involve the use of a pre-decorated option that could be shipped in modular form and simply be a walked in, set up and connected with minimal expertise or time needed. For these centres, we chose to use the 2.8M trees placed singularly or throughout.
For the identified flagship centres, we chose the larger trees, often in conjunction with the hanging decorations or smaller trees. Such centres would need a more skilled team with access equipment etc.
Overall, the solution applied across the country was fully integrated, brand consistent, visually compelling and relatively simple to execute. The feedback from the client and public has been highly positive and there are now plans for further expansion built on the first year’s overwhelming success.
