Johnnie Walker Princes Street has revealed details and design images of the experiential whisky retail concept aimed at bringing "vibrant new life to Edinburgh’s most famous shopping thoroughfare".
The Johnnie Walker retail store will be located on the ground floor of the eight-floor visitor experience, with a shop front on the corner of Princes Street and Hope Street.
The retail space will offer limited edition bottlings, exclusive liquids, merchandise and a personalisation custom studio.
However, it is claimed it also goes beyond traditional retail, using visual theatre and storytelling to "take shoppers on an immersive journey into the world of Johnnie Walker and whisky".
Welcoming walk-in high street customers as well as visitors who take a tour of the whisky experience, shoppers can customise their bottles with engraving and bespoke label printing services at the personalisation area, the firm said. Guests will also be able to bottle their own exclusive liquid only available at the Edinburgh shop.
The "experiential store caters to whisky connoisseurs and novices alike", with staff on hand to give expert advice as well as a unique interactive flavour activity which matches customer’s preferred tastes and scents to their perfect whisky profile.
Enthusiasts can explore and shop an incredible range of rare and exceptional whiskies as part of its whisky treasure chamber, featuring bottlings from Johnnie Walker’s Four Corner distilleries – Glenkinchie, Cardhu, Caol Ila and Clynelish – as well as Diageo’s wide range of whiskies.
As well as offering an incredible selection of whisky, Johnnie Walker Princes Street will offer shoppers a range of store-exclusive branded garments and accessories, such as sustainably sourced clothing, home accessories, and bar tools, as part of its lifestyle boutique. Customers will also be able to shop highball ingredients and cocktail kits to create their favourite Johnnie Walker serves at home.
READ MORE: Drinks giant moves to fill 150 Scots jobs
The modern multi-sensory store was designed in partnership with London-based brand innovation studio, Dalziel & Pow, who have worked with Diageo to develop the whisky emporium’s interactive retail concept.
Greg Klingaman, Diageo’s global retail director, said: “At Johnnie Walker Princes Street, we want our visitors to begin their immersive storytelling experience from the moment they walk through our doors. Our whisky emporium will be the first and last point of their journey with us, which is why we’ve taken so much care and attention to the design of the space. This is whisky retail like you’ve never seen it before, and we can’t wait to share it with our visitors once we open the doors.”
The building at the heart of Edinburgh city centre which Johnnie Walker Princes Street now calls home, has housed retail for almost 100 years, such as department stores Binns and House of Frasers, and the famous corner’s retail legacy will continue through the whisky emporium.
As part of the new whisky attraction, Johnnie Walker also welcomes new retail manager Alan Thomlinson, who’ll bring his 25-year management experience from House of Fraser’s Jenners and West End stores to the modern establishment.
Mr Thomlinson said: “The concept for the Johnnie Walker Princes Street whisky emporium is exactly what Edinburgh and the high street needs, that brings together a world-class shopping experience in an experiential format, and I’m ecstatic to be coming on board as the retail manager for this incredible space.”
Johnnie Walker Princes Street will take visitors on a journey through the brand’s "iconic history as well as featuring modern sensory tasting rooms, personalised tour and tasting experiences, live performance areas and rooftop bars".
Bow of HMS Glasgow rolled out in Govan
THE bow of HMS Glasgow – the first City Class Type 26 frigate being built for the Royal Navy – has been rolled out of the build hall at BAE Systems shipyard on the River Clyde.
Former manse converted into affordable homes
A SCOTTISH housing association has converted its former office building, which was previously a church manse, into homes for social rent.
Sign up
You can now have the new enhanced bulletin with the top business news stories sent direct to your email inbox twice-daily, and Business Week for the weekly round-up on Sunday, by clicking below:
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here