Retailer Focus: Portugal
Welcome to Inset: Partyland flagship store is based in Lisbon. Left: Husband and wife team Riaz and Cristina work together across all of the Partyland shops.
With four branches across Portugal, Partyland is the leading retailer in the region, offering consumers a wide and varied mix of partyware, balloons and fancy dress. PPE spoke to owner Riaz Issa to find out more about the Portuguese market and how Partyland has paved the way for the party trade.
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artyland was something of a fresh start for owner Riaz, who started the company back in 1998 after leaving the consulting company he was working for at the time. He knew he wanted to run his own business, but wasn’t entirely sure what that might be so he visited the Washington Franchise Fair, looking for a business that he could bring back to the untapped market of Portugal. Nothing seemed to grab him – until, on the final day, he found Partyland. “It took me completely by surprise,”he said, speaking to PPE. “It just looked very different to everything else on offer. I came back to Portugal, took a proper look at the marketplace and saw that it was a good opportunity and one that had a lot of room to expand and grow.” Back then, Portugal had just one party shop. “Bringing in Partyland meant introducing a totally new concept and that was a challenge in itself,” explained Riaz. It took time to find the right premises for the new venture, which eventually opened to the public on 21 May 1998. The business has grown steadily in the Above: Balloon décor and elaborate bouquets make up a significant part of Partyland’s business.
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21 years which have passed since then, with three franchise branches now operating across the country in addition to the main store, as well as an international outlet which opened in Mozambique in 2014.
Supply and Demand
“We work closely with Qualatex, Amscan, Unique Party, Talking Tables, Ginger Ray and Party Deco, as well as plenty of others. We support local manufacturers as well – there are a handful of smaller home-based businesses that we work with. It is important to help them out and so we support them wherever we can.”
The flagship store is still based in capital city Lisbon, with a large shop floor (by Portuguese standards, at least) which has recently been completely refurbished and offers a crisp, clean look which allows the Partyland team to make the most of their product displays. “We reburbished the whole store because we wanted our customers to really enjoy the experience of coming in,” Riaz explains. “We wanted our store to have the wow factor – and to make it almost difficult for a customer not to buy something!” “We like to create table settings and balloon and décor designs which look really exciting,” he continues. “We have started focusing on bringing lots of new products and different textures into the store to give a more sophisticated and design-focused look to the displays. This has made a big difference to how customers see our product.” It’s also important to Riaz that Partyland holds a wide assortment of products, ranging from the traditional to the more quirky design touches. “Customers know that if they don’t find it at Partyland then it’s unlikey they will find it anywhere else!” he says. “It’s a big effort, both financially and in terms of sourcing the actual product in the first place, but we think it’s definitely worth it.” In addition to Riaz and his wife, Cristina (a designer by trade, the beautiful store displays are thanks to her), the main shop has four fully trained full-time members of staff which Riaz has also invested heavily in. “Customer service is so important to us. They will all have some Qualatex training, either here or in Barcelona,” he
JULY/AUGUST 2019 PROGRESSIVE PARTY EUROPE
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