Inditex is bringing global fashion brand Stradivarius to London’s Oxford Street ahead of a country-wide expansion.
The retailer, which is owned by Amancio Ortega, the Spanish billionaire behind Zara and Pull & Bear, has agreed a deal to take over the Aldo shoe store at 309 Oxford Street, W1.
Stradivarius will pay £2m a year on a 10-year lease for the 16,000 sq ft flagship store.
It will be the brand’s high street debut, having opened its first shop in the UK – a 4,000 sq ft store at Westfield Stratford, E15 – last year.
Sources said that the retailer, which has 900 stores in 62 countries, planned to replicate its expansion model in London across the UK.
It will initially seek shopping centre sites for trial stores before moving on to the high street. In other countries, Stradivarius has executed an aggressive expansion strategy, opening as many as 60 shops a year.
Matthew Hopkinson, director at the Local Data Company, said: “International brands with UK expansion plans are great as they fill up shops, but it is the larger provincial regional malls that will be targeted first ahead of the high street.”
Last month, Inditex announced net sales of €9.4bn (£7bn) for the first half of 2015, an increase of 17% year-on-year. New stores contributed 7% to sales growth.
Stradivarius was one of the top performing brands for the business during the period, seeing sales rise by 17% to €595m. It was beaten only by Inditex’s flagship brand, Zara, which recorded an 18% growth in sales.
Harper Dennis Hobbs advised landlord Bestseller; Inditex was unrepresented.
