Inside story: how Vicinity supported Frank Green's first steps in to physical retail

Vicinity’s leasing team have a way of understanding which brands are well-placed to benefit from the advantages of opening a physical retail space and Frank Green ticked all the boxes.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past ten years, you’ll know Frank Green as the brand behind the iconic, high-quality cylindrical water bottles and coffee cups. A popular choice for everybody from influencers to corporate executives, Frank Green has amassed more than 300,000 Instagram followers and sold more water bottles in Australia than there are Australians.

To date, its strategy has tilted heavily towards online sales with the remainder made up of resellers like major department stores and smaller boutiques. However, as the brand looks to grow awareness of its growing product range – they also sell lunch boxes, backpacks, and cutlery amongst other things – and eyes up international expansion, they looked to explore a different channel.

But how do you go from an online brand to having a physical retail space that customers can touch, feel, and interact with? That’s where Vicinity’s leasing team can help.

More than placing retailers in spaces, Vicinity’s leasing team use in-house data and analytics combined with their expert local market knowledge to help brands take their first steps into a new retail environment. Sometimes business coach, sometimes marketing support, sometimes leasing agents, the team is on-hand to help brands find new ways of connecting with customers and pursuing their growth plans in a sustainable way.

Behind Frank Green’s venture was Vicinity’s Paul Pellegrino who is no stranger to coaching and supporting online brands find physical retail spaces after helping leading travel booking business, Luxury Escapes open their flagship Chadstone store in 2023.

“Without wanting to sound overly confident, we expected Frank Green to perform well,” said Pellegrino.

“They’ve got strong online performance and presence and have also managed to break into a younger market which has seem them trend on social media, all of which suggests there’s a ready market for them to engage with.”

With Chadstone housing Australia’s largest collection of luxury, premium and lifestyle brands, Pellegrino saw Frank Green as a perfect complementary brand to the centre’s impressive stable.

After looking into the data and finding a space he believed would be most opportune, Pellegrino reached out to learn more about Frank Green.

“We reached out to Frank Green and before long had them onsite at Chadstone to talk through how we could support.

“The timing was quite serendipitous I think, and we had great engagement from the brand’s founder Ben Young and his team to work requirements and brand and customer alignment.”

Part of the Vicinity leasing team’s skill is understanding exactly what spaces will work for best for each brand and with Frank Green.

“Kiosks have this great advantage in putting brands and product ranges literally in the walking path of customers, so if you want to build awareness of a new range, it’s a great option.

“The other thing with Frank Green is that its products are beautiful, and they make you want to touch them so putting them so close to customers would help draw more people into the space.”

“We knew the store had to be eye-catching, so we helped introduce them to some respected designers and shopfitters to assist with them with the process. Our Tenancy Delivery and Design team were absolutely instrumental at this point and to Frank Green’s credit, they took a lot on board and transitioned into physical retail well – it’s not always easy which is why we look to guide brands as much as we can.”

The result of the collaboration between the teams and Frank Green is a unique looking premium kiosk space that incorporates over 1,600 silver water bottles into the design with an internal space offering full customisation of products, monogramming services, and a hydration station. Importantly, the design is unapologetically Frank Green and a photo moment in its own right.

“We encouraged them to look at some of our existing retailers and used case studies for some inspiration, but the design was fundamentally Frank Green’s direction,” said Pellegrino.

While it looks stunning and is another great example of an online brand taking its first physical retail steps with Vicinity, it’s ultimately about how it performs.

“It’s an amazing in-centre experience that has so far performed unbelievably well, not only from a customer experience perspective, but also far exceeding the retailer's expectation from sales point of view. Credit to them!”

To find out how Vicinity’s leasing team can find the perfect space for your brand, view our leasing page.