The massive new Next125 signage is impossible to miss on Glasgow’s Great Western Road, but crucially, so is the store’s additional byline: “with Gideon Robinson”.

And that’s because Schüller-owned Next125 has gone to great lengths to demonstrate that this store isn’t to be confused with a franchise launch – the company is clear that this is an equal partnership, one that benefits both retailer and supplier, and they’re keen to keep the focus on independent studios.

Robinson himself is a formidable independent kitchen retailer in Glasgow, with a kitchen career stretching back more than 20 years. After selling Next125 kitchens since 2013, it was actually Robinson himself who approached the brand to discuss turning his store into a concept showcase for the kitchen supplier.

“We’ve got a very clear policy regarding the Next125 concept stores,” emphasises Malo Tasle, a director at InHouse Inspired Room Design. “All of our retailer partners will continue to be just as important to us as before, and we’ll look after them the same way that we look after the concept store. But the concept stores bring you another level of experience.”

In Tasle’s own words, the new concept store allows consumers to experience the next125 brand in its purest form. “Do they get a bit more advantages in terms of marketing? Well, as a concept store, they get a bit more marketing content from us,” he explains. “But do the concept stores get a better service? No, we make sure they get the same as all of our other partners.”

Tasle refers to the relationship between brand and retailer as a clear partnership, with Gideon Robinson and next125 having both invested heavily into the enterprise. “There is a big team in Germany behind this, and they work very hard to support each and every project individually,” agrees Robert Kettenbach, Next125’s brand director.

And the opening of this store takes Next125’s global concept total up to an impressive and even dozen, with the groundwork for this one’s success already being laid with successful concept stores stretching from Europe to Asia. Looking more locally, however, Next125 has ambitious plans, with an ideal target of roughly 15 concept stores opening across the UK.

And in news that wouldn’t be out of place in this issue’s Good News cover feature, Kettenbach is pleased to report that the UK market appears to be bouncing back after a difficult few years. “On a global scale we are really focusing on the European market at the moment,” he explains. “And of course, Germany is our home market – and probably our strongest –but the UK is really picking up very strongly and looking very successful for us.”

Meanwhile, in Tasle’s own words, a big part of the brand’s success in the UK is down to its place in the UK market, as a “premium” brand, but in a very deliberate way, not positioned as an unattainable “luxury” brand.

“What we all know is that the middle market, obviously, is suffering the most. Having said that, the premium segment and the premium sector of the market is still doing okay,” he explains. “That’s because even in these circumstances people with money still have got money. People that might have bought a luxury kitchen, have come down to the premium market. So I’d say we are actually benefiting from that movement.”

Following the concept store’s opening, Robinson has even predicted that the studio transformation could so much as double his turnover over the next three years. So with that ambitious target set, and a goal of a dozen or so more Next125 Concept Stores hopefully opening across the UK in the not-too-distant future, it’ll be interesting to see if those predictions come to pass.

“Of course, we always want to present the brand in the best possible way,” Kettenbach concludes. “And with a store like this, of course, we know we’re showing the brand at its best. In fact, we’ve already had many requests for other concept stores…”