John Lewis secures two more ‘At Home’ sites
Published: 18 May, 2010
John Lewis is to open its third standalone homewares store on Invista Real Estate’s Mannington Retail Park in Swindon, to be followed by a fourth in Tunbridge Wells.
Following a successful launch in Poole and the decision to open a second store in Croydon, John Lewis has secured two more sites for its new ‘At Home’ format in Swindon and Tunbridge Wells.
In Swindon it has taken a 59,000-sq ft unit on the Mannington Retail Park on a 15-year lease from Invista Real Estate Investment Management. The store will trade from a ground floor area of 30,650 sq ft and a mezzanine level of 28,900 sq ft, with a loading bay and service yard. The park is currently occupied by Allied Carpets, Matalan and CarpetRight. John Lewis will be occupying a unit opposite the existing terrace.
Ashworth Chartered Surveyors and Cushman & Wakefield are retained agents for John Lewis at home and Kier Property is developer.
And John Lewis managing director Andy Street revealed that the fourth ‘At Home’ store would be in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. He said: 'Our property team has been hard at work researching suitable sites for our 'at home' format and we're thrilled our next shops will be in Wiltshire and Kent.
“We'll continue to trial our John Lewis at home format in 2010 as we believe there is a really strong opportunity to grow our business in the home and electricals sector. We know our competitors have a much higher level of coverage in the UK and our smaller format shops will give our customers convenient access to John Lewis products.”
