King Sturge advises A|Wear on first UK store openings
08 September 2008
Ireland's leading high street retailer opens it first UK store in Leicester
A|wear, Ireland’s no.1 female fashion brand, opened its first UK standalone store on 4 September at the new Highcross shopping centre in Leicester.
This will quickly be followed by a second store at Bristol’s Cabot Circus development on 25 September and a third store in Warrington’s Golden Square shopping centre by the end of October.
King Sturge is solely retained by A|wear to identify and negotiate new store acquisitions across the UK and Northern Ireland.
A|wear has 25 stores in the Republic of Ireland and two in Northern Ireland. It has developed a new high-quality store concept, successfully trialled in the Pavilion shopping centre at Swords, County Dublin, which repositions the brand and offers customers an exciting and interactive shopping environment.
Whilst UK trading is extremely tough and fiercely competitive, A|wear is confident that it has a strong, well researched and differentiated proposition. They are used to taking on global competition and will compete on product, price, service and brand.
Tom Keys-Toyer, a Partner in the King Sturge Corporate Real Estate team, commented: “Current economic conditions are presenting A|wear with a huge array of opportunities. Landlords are keen to attract new and exciting brands such as A|wear to their developments and are prepared to offer heavily incentivised deals. A|wear will continue to take a pragmatic and prudent approach to expansion and plans are well advanced to secure a further 10 store openings during 2009.”
