Villefontein Brand Village is attracting more and more

A year ago, stores were closed at the same time to combat the coronavirus epidemic. Have customers returned since then?

We are very, very happy that the customers are already back. We can even say The Village has done very exceptionally since we achieved +34% in sales compared to 2020, on October 29, 2021. We are also growing compared to 2019 of over 21%. These numbers are very exceptional, as today 87% of Village brands are growing and 54 of them have growth rates of over 20%.

How do you explain this madness? Was there a desire for enjoyment, perhaps in relation to the period we are going through, where it is broader than that?

We feel the joy of people finding The Village, but it also and above all attests to the solidity of the economic model developed here, as we are the only center in the world to offer a digital in-store display, but also a digital display with our partner Whishibam. Today, thevillageoutlet.com has achieved an 181% increase in sales since January 1, which is quite extraordinary. And when we see the numbers both physically and digitally, we realize that the model has been a perfect fit and that we still have great growth prospects.

You are opening many new stores at the moment. Is there room for development, to actually expand the village?

There was room, then we were fortunate to be able to continue this development strategy of The Village, always in order to bring the best brands to our consumer customers. A few weeks ago we opened Longchamp, Tara Jarmon, Vanessa, Bruno and most recently Desigual. We will reach about 130 stores.

Do you know where your customers come from? One can imagine, a lot of people who come from Lyon, but also from Nord-Isere or the South of the Department?

In the resumption of activity, we obviously have clients from the area, which was a very solid base for us when there was a resumption of activity. We realize a few weeks ago that foreign customers. We have a lot of clients from border countries like Switzerland, but we also have a much larger client base than these, which come from the UAE, China and Japan, with the borders reopening in particular.