The quaint and quirky confectionery shop, located on Bourke St in Melbourne’s CBD, has received global attention for its unique, playful and colourful store design. 
The Candy Room first opened in 2011 and is designed by Melbourne based company, Red Design Group.
Leonie Schweitzer, founder and co-owner of The Candy Room, explained to Inside Retail Magazine, she wanted the store to be a fantasy world for customers of any age.
“We said we wanted something that was inviting and we wanted people to come into a world of fantasy, but [Red Design Group] also put a little bit of a twist on it,” Schweitzer said.
Schweitzer has been in the retail industry for seven years, having previously been the owner of wholesale confectionery company, Sweet Enough.
Sweet Enough still operates as an online store and is stocked in several major department stores including David Jones and Myer.
“When we started seven years ago, my business partner and I, we wanted to open in retail but we thought we’d have a try with an online store first. We got overwhelmed with demand for our product, so we went into wholesaling. A couple of years later we decided to give retail a go.”
The 52sqm store is based on a black and white concept allowing its colourful confectionery packaging, also created by the Red Design Group, to be the focal point throughout the store.
“They decided that we’d go with a black and white colour scheme to make the colours pop.”
Inside, there is very little furniture with the emphasis on the graphically applied line artwork suggestive of elements of a room.
All the fixtures are painted white so the centre focus is on the illustrations.
Behind the counter a kitchen splashback is drawn, complete with a boiling pot on the stove, and alongside the stove hangs cooking utensils, while shelves complete with ornaments sit above.
Kitchen bench stools are drawn underneath the counter tops, while cartoon style photo frames and vases decorate the walls.
On the display cabinets, cupboards and drawers are drawn on, and along the walls sit shelves with toppling books.
“We work closely with the Red Design Group and they said they have never had such a huge response as they have to The Candy Room concept, it’ s been amazing,” Schweitzer said.
“It’s been in magazines in Spain, France and has been on the covers of English magazines as well,” Schweitzer said.
“It’s taken us 12 months to get the product mix right with the store, we’re pleased with it all and the way the concept has had huge reviews all over the world.
“There’s pages, and pages, and pages of blogs from everywhere on its design.”
Schweitzer says she is not aware of any competitors who have imitated the unique design, but is sure it “won’t take long”.
The Candy Room will open its second store later this year in November.The store will be between 60sqm and 65sqm and will open in Melbourne’s Emporium in the CBD.
The Red Design Group has once again designed the interior for the next Candy Room, with a twist yet to be revealed.
“The drawings and everything have already been done, it’s a similar design but it’s a bit of a twist,” she added.
“It’s along the same concept, but Red Design Group are looking at each store to be a little bit different from the one prior to it.”
In the future the brand will look opening in either Sydney or Queensland, aiming to hit five stores in the next two years.
“Because our product is fairly upmarket, and it’s very different from a lot of the things that are around we have to be mindful of where we open a store, hence why its take us two years to open a second store,” Schweitzer said.
*This article first appeared in Inside Retail Magazine’s February/March 2013 edition. To subscribe to Inside Retail Magazine, our bi-monthly glossy publication, click here.
