John Lewis expands international footprint with first European venture

Retailer to open seven shop-in-shops with The Netherlands’ leading department store

In a first for the retailer, John Lewis has announced it will have a physical presence in Europe by opening shop-in-shops within seven branches of The Netherlands’ leading department store, de Bijenkorf.

The first three shop-in-shop departments will open in spring 2016 at de Bijenkorf’s flagship stores in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague. This will be followed by additional openings in Eindhoven and Utrecht by the end of next year and in Amstelveen and Maastricht in 2017.

The John Lewis departments will be between 300 sq ft and 500 sq ft in size with the retailer’s in-house store design team designing the look and feel of the retail space.

On offer to customers will be the best of John Lewis’s own brand home and lifestyle products across bed, bath, living and gifting assortments.

Today’s announcement builds on John Lewis’s ambition to increase awareness and engagement with more international customers and to expand its existing international presence. Throughout May and July 2015, John Lewis opened 14 shop-in-shops across Singapore and the Philippines and by 2014 had opened seven shop-in-shops in South Korea.

Andy Street, Managing Director, John Lewis, said: “We’re delighted to be debuting our first European shop-in-shop and de Bijenkorf is the perfect partner to enable us to bring John Lewis to a new customer base and country. Our existing shop-in-shops in Singapore, the Phillipines and South Korea have been well received and are trading well. Whilst we remain committed to our UK physical expansion we hope to announce more international collaborations in 2016.”

Source : John Lewis Press Release
www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/media/press/y2015/press-release-11-november-2015-john-lewis-expands-international-footprint-with-first-european-venture.html