Land of opportunity

Land of Leather's success in the UK continues as plans are put in place to expand overseas

Published: 31 August, 2006

Page 6

Land of Leather has ambitious plans to expand to 140 stores by 2012. The value-orientated leather sofa-only retailer - predominently found on retail parks - has already opened 10 stores this financial year and now has 81 stores across the UK and Ireland. And there are already plans in place to open a further three or four over the next nine months.

CEO Clive Hatchard is therefore confident of reaching his target for the following year but adds: "Ten a year should be easy in the earlier period. Hopefully they'll keep coming but it will get harder as we complete the picture."

Most recent openings have included Milton Keynes, Northampton, Derby, Leicester and Truro and his main objective now is to fill in the gaps across the UK and Ireland. Hatchard says there are 60 infills in total to do, in particularly in Wales, the north-east, the north-west as well as London.

"We're one of a few retailers still aggressively rolling out, whereas others have slowed down a bit," says Hatchard. "There's a lot more space than ever before because of the demise of some companies and, because we went public last July, we've improved our attractiveness."

Land of Leather currently has a number of household-related concessions in store on its mezzanine floors, such as Sleep Depot, Carpet Right and Paul Simons Curtains.

"Those tend to be rolling out reasonably well, and we're always looking for concessions, particularly in Scotland and Ireland," Hatchard says. "We sell our own range of accessory products so we don't want a concessionary range that competes with that."

So what about beyond 2012?

Hatchard says: "We want to see a continued expansion with full focus on leather sofas until we've achieved national coverage in 2012. Thereafter we'll consider acquisitions or expansion overseas."

Hatchard believes the company will start looking seriously at expanding overseas within the next two or three years, so their next plank of growth will already be up and running once store expansion in the UK is complete. He lists Holland and Belgium as attractive options, as well as Poland and Russia.

Acquisitions is something the team hasn't yet looked at at all. "If we do, it will be something that complements us or that we can roll out into our stores immediately," says Hatchard.

So Land of Leather has come a long way since its humble beginnings, though fast-paced expansion has always been key. Since the opening of the first store in London in 1997 by Paul Briant and his brother Jerry, Land of Leather has thrived to make leather affordable to a broader range of buyers - achieved through low cost operations and sourcing of products from the Far East.