The Scottish menswear retailer Slaters has kick-started its £20m expansion plans with the acquisition of stores in Liverpool and Canterbury.
It has signed for a 1,300 sq m (13,993 sq ft) unit on Liverpool’s Williamson Street and a 743 sq m (8,000 sq ft) unit in the Longmarket shopping centre in Canterbury. It is also poised to sign for outlets in Nottingham and Cheltenham, and is in advanced talks for sites in Preston and Leicester.
The company aims to acquire 70 stores over the next five years, with around 50 outside the M25 area, and a further 20 in Greater London. It is looking for first-floor units of around 929 sq m (10,000 sq ft) in towns such as Brighton, Guildford and Reading.
Slaters aims to cut around 90% of its rental costs by only trading from first-floor units, thereby bypassing zone A rents, and is looking to pay no more than £108 per sq m (£10 per sq ft).
It trades from nine stores in Aberdeen, Ayr, Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle, and its flagship store in Glasgow. At 3,716 sq m (40,000 sq ft), the Glasgow store has earned Slaters a Guinness Book of Records place, as the largest menswear retailer in the world.
Chairman Paul Slater said: “We have the money to expand – it’s just a question of finding the right sites. We won’t be moving into central London for a while, but as long as there are accessible, central sites in other good locations, we will push on with expansion plans.”
Charles Price acts for Slaters.
EGi News 24/05/01
