Annabelle DEGROS

Could you introduce your company?

Grain de Malice is a women’s ready-to-wear brand that dresses women over 35. We dress every figure from 36 to 50. The idea is for women to feel good in their clothes. To prove this, we have created the “100% bien-aller” label.

Grain de Malice stands for “La mode qui vous va bien” (“Fashion that looks good on you”), but that looks good on you in every sense of the word. In other words, it suits you in terms of body shape and comfort, and it suits you because it makes you look your best.

How do Codata’s data assist your development strategy?

We do have a very dynamic development as we aim to open 15 new shops per year in the next five years in order to strengthen our coverage of France.

We intend to reach between 300 and 350 shops, mainly through commission-affiliation with partners who want to open a shop under the Grain de Malice name.

I use Codata every time I analyse a project, because it gives me an idea of the commercial site when I speak to prospective franchisees. Codata helps me to get to grips with a commercial site before I go there: find out how commercial it is, whether the sector is buoyant or not and analyse footfall.

Finally, commercial vacancy rate is also an important notion because we know how difficult it is to open a shop in areas where there are empty commercial units.

How often do you use the Codata solution?

I use the solution daily. Not a day goes by that I do not receive a site proposal and go to Codata to see where and how the suggested location is located.

What are the features that you use the most?

I mainly use the cartographic interface because it allows me to visualise straightaway where a location is situated, the retail environment surrounding it and the footfall data. Then, I use the demographic data and the list of retailers present on a given commercial site.

According to you, what are the strong points of the Codata solution?

I appreciate the regular updates. This is important because retailing and customer behaviour are changing enormously. Having data that is regularly updated means that, even for our existing shops, I can be sure that we are always in the right place.

The precision of the cartography is another of Codata’s strengths. Another of Codata’s strengths is the accuracy of its cartography. You might think that all you have to do is consult online cartography services to locate shops, but unlike Codata, these services do not provide data on commercial vacancy, do not necessarily position the right retailers on the map and footfall is not available.

In the Codata solution, there’s a ‘all in one place’ aspect that I appreciate. All the data I need is reunited in the same solution.