MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

(Above) Kevin Keenan, General Manager, Westfarms, poses with the Chamber presidents
from West Hartford, Newington, Avon & Simsbury at a recent multi-Chamber event.

Westfarms opened in 1974 with only 15 stores and has expanded several times in the past 3 decades.  Explain the history of Westfarms and your most recent changes.

Westfarms has actually been in a constant state of change, evolving continuously to meet the changing needs of customers, since opening almost 36 years ago.  In the early 80s, Lord & Taylor was added as well as many of our better retailers like Brooks Brothers, Coach, Pottery Barn and Banana Republic. In the mid 90s we welcomed Connecticut’s first (and still only) Nordstrom and added 135,000 square feet of new specialty retail space that included Restoration Hardware, Apple, Harry & David and Pottery Barn Kids.  Since 2007, we have continued with our tradition of bringing the country’s most sought after retailers to the West Hartford / Farmington market with new additions that include Tiffany & Co., Louis Vuitton, Cole Haan, Nike Store and within the past 13 months we opened two new destination restaurants. Westfarms has long been recognized as central Connecticut’s premiere shopping destination and we will continue our long tradition of continuously upgrading our merchandise mix and restaurant offerings to meet the demands of our customers.

The Westfarms website has a lot of information for shoppers.  Explain how you stay connected using the worldwide web.

We believe that our interactive marketing program - including our website, www.shopwestfarms.com - provides an incredibly effective, real-time method to communicate with our shoppers while delivering value to our merchants in the form of free advertising. In addition to the website, which is updated daily, we also send out an "e-bulletin" every Thursday that features the week's hot sales, new products and upcoming events. Although we have over 30,000 registered e-bulletin subscribers, what we've learned is that customers want exclusive offers customized to their preferences, so we've developed a tool that allows each shopper to essentially choose their desired content - they pick up to 30 of their favorite stores and then receive targeted messages with promotions specific to the stores they chose, as well as a direct link to those stores' pages on our site.

The “Westfarms Team” atmosphere is apparent in all that you do.  Explain.

We have a great team of over 70 people who work, many behind the scenes, in concert to provide the best possible experience for our customers. We are committed to recruiting the most talented people in the market and then creating a work environment that is both empowering and challenging in the hopes of bringing out the best in each of our associates. Frequent communication is the key to keeping everyone informed and focused on our business objectives. Additionally, we consistently engage the staff to participate in a wide range of organizations and initiatives outside of the shopping center as brand ambassadors for Westfarms and to promote team-building through good community works.

In 2008, Westfarms was named “Volunteer of the Year” by the Chamber. You have been a tremendous supporter of the Chamber Golf Tournament, the Chamber Scholarship Fund, and many others.    Explain the benefits of partnering.

We value the Chamber not only as a vehicle to create new business to business relationships but also as a bridge to the community.  Through our Chamber partnership, Westfarms has been able to connect with many of the great people and organizations in town. From our ongoing sponsorship of the West Hartford Art League’s summer art program to participating in Celebrate West Hartford each year to our commitment to growing the Chamber’s own annual golf tournament, we truly value the unique opportunities that we have to directly interact with the communities we serve in meaningful, high-touch ways. We recently hosted a Multi-Chamber Business After Hours event that welcomed members of, Avon, Farmington, Newington, Simsbury & West Hartford to Center Court for a night of networking.  The event gave us the opportunity to showcase several of our fine restaurants and retailers and provided all of the Chambers involved with a fun evening of networking.  It was a great success and speaks to what can be accomplished through a simple membership.