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| | | | 13/01/2012 | Property Week, David Hatcher - Designers at Debenhams hope to defy downturn | | | | | Plans for 9 stores in next 3 years | | | | | Despite more blood expected on the high street, Debenhams plans to open nine new stores over the next three years.
The retailer also aims to refurbish 45 stores in its portfolio over the course of the next two years and believes that it could open another 65 stores across the UK before its appetite for expansion is sated.
"We have had new CACI research carried out what shows, on top of the 166 stores we have, we can get up to 240 based on optimum capacity, factoring in online growth," says Rob Hadfield, head of property at Debenhams. "We're looking at a mixed bag of retail parks, town centres and shopping centre extensions. We can flex the store sizes from 30,000sq ft right up to 60,000sq ft. There's quite a lot more to go at."
No new shopping centres are scheduled to open in 2012, so Debenhams is having to be open-minded about where it locates stores.
The nine locations to which it has already committed are Chesterfield, Burton upon Trent, Darlington, Bradford, Hereford, Barnsley and Macclesfield, as well as Carlow and Sligo in Ireland.
Hadfield says there is still competition for appropriate space in the best-performing towns where Debenhams is trying to gain a presence.
Stores that will serve more affluent areas is a new, higher-end dining concept called Estro, Hadfield explains: "Estro is our new catering offer in store that we are starting to roll out. It will depend on the location what exactly we put in, in the same way we might decide to put in designers Betty Jackson or Jasper Conran."
The retailer's expansion on the back of solid Christmas trading figures, and Hadfield's confidence, suggests that Debenhams may be one of the few retailers to offer solace for landlords this year. |
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