With more and more Scandinavian brands making their mark on the UK retail market, the opportunity to attend the CIFF and Revolver trade shows in Copenhagen was a great chance to meet and engage with these retailers.
In the last 12 months, a number of these brands have taken concessions in major department stores including Ganni and Rains and therefore it was a valuable opportunity to engage with them to discuss their future UK expansion. Further to this, we had the opening to meet with emerging brands starting to consider international expansion and considering the London market, which included Legends of Copenhagen, NN07 and Holzweilier.
The events were buzzing with retailers exhibiting new season’s stock to buyers negotiating orders. Brands were interested to hear about the broad range of instructions across London that Nash Bond deal with and the potential opportunities we could therefore offer them in the capital.
Throughout both events, sustainability was a clear theme, with a noticeable focus on ethical production and minimising waste in both the product and production process. Many felt that this concern wasn’t shared by the UK consumer with price still driving consumer choices.
While Brexit was of course another topic of conversation, many of the brands were interested and excited about the idea of trailing space within London in a pop-up or temporary store, which is a theme we are seeing increasingly across London.
We also visited a number of the brands at their stores within the city, which allowed us to experience the concept first hand. Many of the brands had chosen to acquire relatively big stores, giving them the ability to also house their showrooms and offices all under one roof.
Despite concerns of the impact of digital retail, it was encouraging to hear how physical expansion remains a focus for many brands and London regularly features on the shortlist.
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