Our first 'Designers Choice 2021' is Fathalla in Egypt. Our designers have chosen this project because of the optimistic and ambitious character of the project. It has been a real pleasure working with the professional and commercially experienced Fathalla family and all of this has resulted in a great design and a very commercially successful store. The project has been completely remote as the development was in one of the big waves of the corona-virus. Senior designer Joke Wouda said: 'the whole project was about bridging the geographical distance by trust in each other. This project literally got our team through a though covid-time'.
We redesigned - closely together with the Fathalla Family - a 2700 square meters store with as well food as non-food. The family started in 1948 with their first store and till now Fathalla had only stores in Alexandria. We opened a new pilot store in the 'Rehab District' in Cairo. That was a very exciting step because the brand was still unknown in Cairo. The concept is very colorful and fitting as well the rich Egyptian heritage as international retail standards. Of course we were all believed in our new concept, but also uncertain how that would work out. It turned out to be a big succes, the turnover was even much more than the initial calculated expectations.
In our series of Designers Choice we highlight the favorite projects of our designers from their creative perspective.