Biggest Festool store in the world opening in the UK!

[Mac]

Hi all,

Was excited to receive an invitation today to the opening of the World of Festool in Nuneaton in the UK next monday. Apparently it's the biggest Festool store in the world and various big cheeses from Festool will be there...including the granddaughter of the Festool founder! Me, I'm more interested in the massive test centre they say is on site!

It's part of the Axminster Tool centre, apparently.  Well worth a visit, I'm sure.

Cheers,
Rick

 

[Peter Hamilton-Scott]

Rick, if they allow it can you take some photos and post them for us? I think we'd be very interested to see what the shop looks like. Nuneaton is not accessible for me from where I live. I could make a day out of it but I'd want a lot of spending money to make it worthwhile as it would be very rude not to buy something.

 

[clev1066]

I feel cheated.

Shouldn't the biggest tool store be in Texas  ;D

 

[tbellemare]

It is...

Well, MY biggest Festool store is in Texas.

Tom

 

[Peterm]

It's part of the Axminster Tool centre, apparently.  Well worth a visit, I'm sure.

Cheers,
Rick

The address made me smile - Bermuda Trading Estate; once you get into FestoolWorld, you just disappear...

Pete.

 

[GreenGA]

All true...  Unfortunately, the real one is NAINA.

It is...

Well, MY biggest Festool store is in Texas.

Tom

I feel cheated.

Shouldn't the biggest tool store be in Texas  ;D

 

[Mac]

I'll be pleased to take some pics when I get there. Won't be able to make the opening though, my real job as a teacher doesn't allow for such fun diversions! 

You Yanks...you got to have the largest of everything! Can't you be happy for us poor Limeys, just this once..? 

 

[tbellemare]

Mac:

Last time I was in London, I was told you had the biggest toy store in the world - I think it was called Harrods?

Now you have the biggest men's toy store in the world also.

But Texas is bigger than France...

Tom

 

[Forrest Anderson]

Was excited to receive an invitation today to the opening of the World of Festool in Nuneaton in the UK next monday. Apparently it's the biggest Festool store in the world and various big cheeses from Festool will be there...including the granddaughter of the Festool founder! Me, I'm more interested in the massive test centre they say is on site!

It's part of the Axminster Tool centre, apparently.  Well worth a visit, I'm sure.

Thanks for the info about Festool World! For other FOG members, here's the article about it on Axminster's News page

Opening times and some other details are at http://www.axminster.co.uk/viewindex.asp?article_id=storenuneaton and for those of you (including me) wondering where Nuneaton is, there's a zoomable map which shows that it's in Warwickshire - east of Birmingham, north of Coventry, and 330 miles and 5 1/2 hours by road from me  

However 1000 square feet is only about 10 x 11 yards, which doesn't really sound too much, so maybe there's somewhere bigger in Texas after all...?!

Forrest

 

[AlexThePalex]

However 1000 square feet is only about 10 x 11 yards, which doesn't really sound too much, so maybe there's somewhere bigger in Texas after all...?!

It also depends on how much tools you cram into a spot. The Festool Shop-in-Shop concept is pretty familiar here in Holland, I got about a dozen in my vicinity. I think Axminster is merely trying to give as lot of rumour as possible to the opening of their new shop by calling it the biggest in the world, but I've seen the very same shops here too. They talk about 1000 feet in the article, that's, like Forrest said, 11x10 yards or in metric, 90 square meters. I now of one Shop-in-Shop here that also has a setup of about 90 square meters, but they carry just as much tools as another shop that crams it all into a mere 50 square meters. The first one is just more spacious.

I found the test centers a bit disappointing. The whole 'test center' is just an MFT with a CTL vac under it. On top of it you'll find a couple of pieces of wood on it with some drill holes in it and perhaps a screw or two. I have visited the Festool shops countless times by now in various cities and I haven't seen even one single person test any tool on them yet. Neither do the employees in the shops look like they're anxious to pull out some 15 or 20 minutes for you to really let you test the tools. They're always busy.

By looking at the Shop-in-Shops here I can tell that the line "If Festool make it, we store it" is mostly true, as far as the tools themselves are concerned. But I was rather disappointed that that slogan does not count for their accessories. They got quite some, but still I have to order about 50% of the accessories I need and wait a week.

But it's good to see the Shop-in-Shop concept is now also introduced in England.

 

[SteveD]

I just drove past the 'Bermuda' trading estate on my way to 'Hamilton'. Not a sign of a new store anywhere.
Hmmm,
I wonder where Nuneaton is? Perhaps it has been swallowed by the triangle?

SteveD , in the real Hamilton, in the real Bermuda.

 

[joiner1970]

I just drove past the 'Bermuda' trading estate on my way to 'Hamilton'. Not a sign of a new store anywhere.
Hmmm,
I wonder where Nuneaton is? Perhaps it has been swallowed by the triangle?

SteveD , in the real Hamilton, in the real Bermuda.

Hi SteveD,

I got married in Hamilton 11 years ago you are very lucky to live where you do its paradise. We went to Antigua for our 10th anniversary last year but it wasnt a patch on Bermuda.

 

[Peter Hamilton-Scott]

Mac:

Last time I was in London, I was told you had the biggest toy store in the world - I think it was called Harrods?

Now you have the biggest men's toy store in the world also.

But Texas is bigger than France...

Tom

The toy shop is in Regents Street and it's called Hamleys. It's quite a place to visit but avoid the Christmas period as it positively bursts at the seams with shoppers.

 

[tbellemare]

That's the one, Hamley's!

I bought my honey a beany rabbit there.

Tom

 

[Dan Clermont]

1000 square feet doesn't sound very large IMO. Anthony at Ideal Tools in Australia has a much larger festool footprint from what I can tell in his pics.

I guess I could go 1001 square feet and be the largest in the world BWAH HAHAHAHAHAH

Dan Clermont

 

[woodguy7]

Forrest, you think you have it bad.  I am 5hrs from you so 10.5hrs from festool world by car  :'(

Woodguy.

 

[Anthony]

1000 square feet doesn't sound very large IMO. Anthony at Ideal Tools in Australia has a much larger festool footprint from what I can tell in his pics.

I guess I could go 1001 square feet and be the largest in the world BWAH HAHAHAHAHAH

Dan Clermont

Hi Dan. Nice pick-up. I have 140 square meters for the Festool Workshop area alone, that's our practical demo space. I hate to brag though.... 

 

[Tezzer]

12000 square feet is tiny. We have a hardware shop here in Melbourne that is 178144 square feet. (but not a Festool in sight  [sad] )

 

[Rick Christopherson]

I haven't read the whole discussion, but that store sounds a little over inflated on their claims. During a tour of the Festool factory 3 years ago, we were invited to a special tour of a new tool store in Germany that would rival most (if not all) stores I have seen in the U.S. This was a private tour, so the store was closed to customers. The picture below shows only half of the store.

It has been 3 years, so I can't remember everyone, but I can make out a few faces in the picture. (There were many UK magazine editors there, but I don't know any of them.) Here are the people I recognize:
I don't know the group of 4 guys in the foreground. The main group is in the middle of the picture.

Christian Oltzscher is in the black leather jacket to the far right.
Randy Johnson (American Woodworker) is wearing the gray sweater and yellow shirt in the middle (TV next to his head).
Rob Johnstone (Woodworker's Journal) is in a tan leather jacket at the bottom of the main group (just right of Bob Hunter)
Bob Hunter (Wood Magazine) is in the blue shirt left of Rob J.
Michael Williams (Festool USA) is schmoozing with a woman off in the distance at the far left (I bet this picture might get me some blackmail tools).  [big grin]
Christopher Schwarz (Popular Woodworking) is just over Michael Williams' shoulder, but his back is turned
Me, as usual, the outcast up on the second floor taking the picture.

 

[richard.selwyn]

The picture doesn't show how bick the Festool area is 

I visited the Festool area in the Axminster store.  Biggest or not, it was better than my local Festool dealer in France who has no store at all (although he is very good and does hold stock which is rare for Festool dealers here.)

It was nice to be able to browse and check out some of the (rare) Festools I don't have.  They pretty much have one of everything they make on display, except the very big boom arms and the industrial vacuum unit which I couldn't spot.