Hitachi Home

Joining hands in 2015, JCI-Hitachi is a collaboration between Johnson Controls and Hitachi that blends global engineering expertise with air conditioning systems, a legacy that spans decades. 

Watching India’s growth in economic parameters and a predicted increase in demand for consumer electronics, JCI-Hitachi wanted to solidify its presence in tier II & III geographies by launching compact stores that were capable of showcasing its entire product universe and strengthening its retail network in the country.

As the project encompassed exclusive and non-exclusive stores, JCI-Hitachi wanted an end-to-end retail solution (from design to execution) to consolidate its presence nationwide. Having played a hand in 60000+ touchpoints across 6 nations, JCI-Hitachi went ahead with D’Art Design as its retail expansion partner, tasking us with supporting their aggressive expansion into tier II & III.

Building Hitachi’s retail architectural blueprint

D’Art commenced the project by building a retail architecture manifesto that would act as the brand’s design north star. Basing the said manifesto as the foundation, we created a compact, yet scalable store concept that would showcase JCI-Hitachi’s entire product range, and called it Hitachi Home. 

As it was meant to be scaled nationwide, the concept had to set a benchmark for what Hitachi’s retail identity for the future would look like across diverse Indian markets. Thus, we took ‘diverse Indian markets’ as operative words, devolved regional sensibilities from the manifesto, and assisted JCI-Hitachi in establishing a strengthened, yet locally apt identity that would allow them to organically place their store across the country.

Executing at scale with precision

D’Art switched phases, post design approval, and started working on two parallel projects. On the manufacturing front, we executed 100+ exclusive stores and fabricated 750+ retail fixtures to ensure brand consistency across store formats.

And simultaneously, we realised that the scope of this national in scale, predominantly focused on areas where logistical operations are particularly challenging. Therefore, we established and trained our installation team on SOPs to ensure a precise and efficient fitout phase. 

A future-ready retail ecosystem

As a result of JCI-Hitachi & D’Art Design's close coordination, we were able to scale Hitachi Home to hundreds of touchpoints across tier II & III cities, all while faithfully representing the brand within an Indian context, and taking up a lower average store footprint.