Shop switch means Ocean sale for Hibs

Situated on the third floor of the huge complex, the new Hibs shop will be within the Debenhams store, a link which Colin McNeill, director of marketing and communciations, believes will bring long-term benefits for the club.

Hibs will make the move as they prepare to temporarily close their club store at Easter Road whilst work to more than double it in size - up from 1100 square feet to 2600 sq ft - is completed.

McNeill said: "Work on the extension is on schedule and everything is on target to meet our opening date of late November.

"But we were always aware that we'd have to shut the club store for four or five weeks to allow the internal work to be carried out and that we'd require to trade from somewhere else.

"Tying up with Debenhams at Ocean Terminal is ideal. Debenhams are one of the top retailers in the United Kingdom while Ocean Terminal is a very busy shopping centre which isn't too far from Easter Road."

Staff at the Easter Road shop will begin moving stock to Ocean Terminal next week with the plan being to open at Debenhams, near their restaurant, within the next fortnight.

Hibs made the decision to expand their shop, situated on the ground floor of the Famous Five Stand, earlier in the year after the club's bankers agreed to back their business plan.

But starting the work was delayed to accommodate the highly-successful launch of thenew home and away kits.

McNeill said: "The shop has been booming over the past three years and had become too cramped for the number of people who were visiting it, particularly on match days.

"We found that the large queues deterred potential shoppers, especially those looking to buy smaller items and last Christmas we tried to counter that by opening two kiosks within the stadium.

"We are again about to start the run-up to Christmas, the busiest period of the year and obviously we couldn't afford to close the shop for four or five weeks at this time.

"Moving to Debenhams makes it all very easy for us in terms of logistics and flexibility, it is a great development opportunity for us. And with plans to expand the range of merchandising - with more than 300 lines ranging from Hibs chilli sauce to "the coat Tony Mowbray wears on a Saturday" - once their new flagship superstore is opened, McNeill believes working alongside staff at Debenhams will benefit the Easter Road club's own employees.

He said: "We are looking to take retailing at Easter Road onto the next level, which means improved merchandise, point of sales, levels of stock and so on. So being so closely involved with a company like Debenhams will be a great learning experience for our staff."

Debenhams Ocean Terminal store manager Mike McBride said: "We are delighted Hibernian Football Club have decided to take a concession in our store. Being a part of the Leith and North Edinburgh community, we know a large number of our customers are Hibs supporters so we look forward to working closely with the club over the coming weeks."