LPP plans UK expansion for Reserved, plus Paris, Milan flagships

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Sep 3, 2018

We’ve seen surprisingly little activity since Poland’s LPP opened its London flagship in the former BHS store on Oxford Street but that doesn't mean that it has reined-in its plans for the UK market.

In an interview at the weekend, its CEO said that he believes Britain could support dozens of stores for the brand and also that he is planning flagships in Milan and Paris.

Reserved, with attention-grabber Kate Moss as its brand ambassador, dominated the headlines exactly a year ago as it opened just a stone's throw away from the flagships of some of the world’s biggest brands such as Zara and H&M. But there has been speculation about its intentions in the UK with no further openings since then.

However, CEO Marek Piechocki told the Sunday Telegraph that he strongly believes in the UK market and more stores will definitely open, even though the UK operation is still lossmaking.

“For sure right now we have losses, everybody does for their first couple of years. When H&M entered Germany, which is today their biggest market, they had losses for seven years,” he said. “We want to be [in the UK], we are talking about some other locations in London but we just say ‘step by step, moderate, not too fast’. He who is fast arriving is fast leaving.”

Like giant rival Inditex and its star Zara brand, LPP has a whole portfolio of different brands but Reserved is far and away the leader, helping drive the company to a market value of £3.6 billion with more than 1,700 stores across Europe and the Middle East.

It's also helping to drive profits growth, despite the losses in Britain, with the firm having made a pre-tax profit of €103 million last year with revenue up around 20% to €1.7 billion.