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Birmingham Post
Birmingham Post
Business
Lauren Harte

Belfast businessman on why he decided to bring his online retail shop back to the high street

The Bureau was once a hugely popular men's clothing shop, based in the heart of Belfast city centre.

Despite leaving the high street many years ago, it has remained so, thanks to its thriving online offering.

Now the menswear retailer has gone full circle, having recently made a welcome return to the high street in its new home, on the cobbled streets of Belfast's Cathedral Quarter.

It's still owned by Paul Craig and Michael Hamilton and today it's stocking many popular brands such as Engineered Garments, Visvim, Alden, orSlow, Ten C, Tricker's, Needles, Post O'Alls and more.

The business first opened on Wellington Street in 1989 and enjoyed 15 years of strong business before later opening a second outlet on nearby Howard Street, which went on to become the flagship store.

While the company has enjoyed a strong online presence for many years, the decision was then made to move to complete a web offering, based out of Portview Trading Centre on the Newtownards Road.

"We had a rent review followed by the financial crisis of 2008 so it seemed like the right decision at the time given that our online business was so strong," co-owner Paul Craig said.

"When we moved out to Portview we took on a 3,000 sq ft space for our online business, which just went through the roof. We are still mainly an online business but we've always been retailers because that's what Michael and I started out as."

Paul Craig, co-owner of The Bureau Belfast since 1989 (Justin Kernoghan/Belfast Live)

Paul first met Michael after he began working at Topman in Belfast back in 1983

"Working in retail just clicked with me and I loved it. Michael left Topman after two years and went to work for Reflex but we stayed good friends," Paul recalled.

"We hatched a plan to open our own shop and that was it. We were quite specific in what we wanted to do and offer but you have to remember that back then, the Troubles were still on.

"When we were contacting companies in England to try to do business with them, they were pretty stand-offish and didn't really want anything to do with Belfast or Northern Ireland.

"It was a difficult start but we wanted to bring a new level of casual-wear and focus on European brands. At that point, we latched on to Paul Smith, which was still a small company back then but it became a big brand for us and helped to grow our business."

When restaurateur Niall McKenna, owner and head chef of the renowned James Street South Group, told Paul he was opening his new Waterman Restaurant in Belfast's Cathedral Quarter, it seemed like too good an opportunity to miss.

While its website is still going strong, The Bureau opened up a new store on Hill Street two months ago.

The Bureau Belfast specialises in the Engineered Garments clothing range (Justin Kernoghan/Belfast Live)

"Michael and I had been talking about this for a couple of years and it was all agreed pre-Covid. We had already decided that if we were to come back to Belfast, we wanted to be in the Cathedral Quarter and in a nice building, which is exactly what we got!" Paul said.

"These days our business has completely changed and we're more focused on smaller niche brands, particularly Engineered Garments, a New York- based contemporary fashion label by Japanese designer Daiki Suzuki.

"The opening has gone phenomenally well so far and everyone seems really happy to see us back. What's been really nice is that old customers who used to shop with us and hadn't followed us online have been coming back. They just love it and seem to have really embraced it."

Northern Irish artist Colin Davidson, renowned for his deeply impressionistic and impassioned portraits both of celebrities and victims of the Troubles, has been a customer of the store since his late teens.

Paul and Michael were delighted to have him create the internal graphic for their new Hill Street store.

"We realise it is a challenging time to be coming back into retail on the high street but we feel that because our online presence is so strong, we can weather things quite well. We know it will be difficult for a bit with costs and things but we wouldn't be doing this if we didn't feel confident," Paul added.

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