After second Oxford Street sign-up, Reserved in talks for wider UK rollout

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Feb 13, 2023

Fashion retailer Reserved is planning to open new stores in London, alongside an ambitious plan to open further 400 stores throughout Europe by year-end.

Six years after debuting its flagship store on Oxford Street, the fast-fashion retailer owned by Polish clothing group LLP, is to open stores in the Westfield Stratford and Brent Cross shopping centres. It is also in talks about sites in cities including Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and Newcastle, according to The Times newspaper.

“We have lots of experience from out store on Oxford Street and believe that... we can fill the gap in the market right now, especially while many other companies are closing their stores,” Przemyslaw Lutkiewicz, chief financial officer at LLP, said. 

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“We hope we can fill that Topshop-shaped hole on the high street,” he added.

Lutkiewicz also suggested it was now “quite easy” to enter the British market: “Many big retailers have had to scale back their businesses. There have been lots of nice properties, lots of nice locations to take over right now.”

He said that while the British economy is struggling, it would start to grow soon: “The market is so big for us that even having a small portion of it will be beneficial for our company.”

Reserved made its London debut in 2017 with high-profile celebrity Kate Moss chosen as the face of the brand. It opened on Oxford Street in the former BHS store and having survived the pandemic there, it now plans to open a second Oxford Street store opposite the new Elizabeth Line station at Tottenham Court Road later this year.

LLP Group, which is the biggest clothing manufacturer in central and eastern Europe, operates almost 2,000 stores worldwide, including more than 460 under the Reserved fascia in 40 markets.

Lutkiewicz also said Reserved’s plans had been pushed back because of the pandemic and rising costs since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but the latter factor had now “spurred the business on to push into more western markets”.