River Island

Retail giant River Island has joined forces with leading paint manufacturer Johnstone�s to create a stylish new look for 130 of its popular high streets stores.

The extensive contract involved the creation of a colourful new interior design for 10 new stores and the refurbishment of 120 existing outlets.

As one of Europe’s most popular fashion retailers it was extremely important that the new décor and colour palette reflected River Island’s modern, stylish and individual personality. Offering a comprehensive customer service package, members of Johnstone’s Specification team worked closely with River Island to successfully develop and manage the project from start to finish.

Once the client’s initial requirements had been indentified, the Specification team liaised with members of Johnstone’s ColorXpress and Technical Advisory departments to devise a unique colour palette using the innovative Johnstone’s 32 colorant tinting system.

Neil Rowbotham, ColorXpress Tinting Services Manager at Johnstone’s explains: “Using colour matching software and skilled technicians we were able to make every individual colour to River Island’s exact specification. The colours were created using our innovative 32 colorant tinting system and once the palette had been finalised, our Technical Advisory Department used samples to create a swatch booklet. The new colours were then supplied to River Island through our Decorating Centres nationwide.”

Working in partnership with Doncaster based decorators Colourworld, the new River Island flagship store at Brent Cross in London was the first to be decorated and features the use of Johnstone’s Cova Plus Matt Emulsion, Acrylic Eggshell, Acrylic Undercoat and Acrylic Gloss coatings.

Johnstone’s successful performance in the UK has led to the creation of a strong working relationship with River Island, so much so that the paint manufacturer was the supplier of choice when the retail chain turned its attention to its international stores. In addition to supplying products and technical support for the decoration of a new outlet in Warsaw, Poland, Johnstone’s has also been appointed to supply paint for the retailer’s new superstore in Moscow, Russia. The world wide roll out of the new colour palette devised by Johnstone’s is also expected to continue with the decoration of stores in Rotterdam in The Netherlands, Kuwait and Bahrain.

Tom Diver, Specification Development Manager adds: “To ensure the successful delivery of a such a large scale project it was vital that each different element of the supply chain worked together effectively and harmoniously. A collaborative approach was vital and by utilising the expertise of the Specification, Technical Advisory, Colour Xpress and Decorating Centre teams, as well as the skills of the decorators at Colourworld, we were able to create a new look for River Island that will no doubt turn heads on the high street!”

Johnstone’s tinting system features a 32-canister dispenser that houses 19 universal and 13 solvent-based colorants. Helping to dramatically improve product performance, quality and customer experience, the solvent-based colourants offer unprecedented levels of coverage, opacity, colour retention and vibrancy.

Compatible for use with the majority of products offered by Johnstone’s, including emulsions, glosses, trims and specialist finishes, the tinting system offers limitless design possibilities. In addition to providing a greater choice of shades and tones, the tinting system also guarantees the same high level of paint quality is consistent across all colours and finishes therefore making it the ideal resource for a wide variety of projects.