Dundee vinyl retailer Assai Records will open its largest shop in Glasgow this spring.
It will be the third retail outlet for the business, which also operates from Dundee’s Union Street and Edinburgh.
Moving to Scotland’s largest city has been “three years in the planning” according to boss Keith Ingram.
Assai was set to sign a lease for a Glasgow shop in 2020 but Covid threw these plans out of the groove.
“At the time it felt like something we’d pick up in the summer of 2020,” Keith said.
“It’s just not felt like the right time until now. Customers are much more confident about shopping in person again.
“Glasgow is a huge opportunity for us – there’s no one there who does exactly what we do.”
Keith was previously the store manager of HMV in Glasgow and said it’s his dream to open a shop in the city.
He said Assai already has a good base of customers in Glasgow, who currently shop online.
Around seven staff will be required for the 1,000 sq ft shop. Keith is keeping the address of the new shop under wraps just now.
It is due to open in March, ahead of this year’s Record Store Day on April 22.
Assai hopes for Big Weekend boost
Keith said demand for vinyl records remains strong, with more young people than ever buying LPs.
He also hopes the business will benefit from Radio 1’s Big Weekend coming to Dundee in May.
“Whenever there’s a big event with music buying visitors, footfall massively increases,” he said.
“We are hoping that will be the same in May and maybe we can even entice some of the names down to the shop to do signing.
“Vinyl buyers are changing – there are always young people buying records, which wasn’t the case a decade ago.
“We’ve managed to carve a niche with our limited editions of some new releases. We’ve supported the record labels and they’ve supported us.
“For instance we have a neon purple Assai Obi edition of the new Gorillaz record with 500 records.
“Last night they promoted it to their four million followers on social media and they sold out instantly.”
Meanwhile another Dundee business is benefitting from Assai’s expansion.
The steel racks for the records on sale in the new shop will be made by Adamson Fabrications.
Keith Ingram’s top tip
How do you continue to have success with a bricks and mortar retail business?
We keep looking for deals for our customers. Between the shops and online we have good buying power and we try to give people good offers. The price of our records start at just £5.99.
Conversation