Fat Face adds eight stores as UK expansion gathers pace

The retailer has signed for eight new units adding more than 30,000 sq ft (2,790 sq m) to its portfolio of more than 140 stores across the UK.

It has taken units in Beverley in East Yorkshire, Farnham in Surrey, Epping in Essex, Tavistock near Plymouth, St Albans in Hertfordshire, Oxford, Reading and The Haymarket in Norwich, where it has relocated from its previous store.

In January, Fat Face announced that it planned to open at least 20 stores this year after posting a 19 per cent sales rise in the previous six months to£61.7 million.

This followed a 38 per cent rise in sales to£111.1 million for the 53 weeks to June 2 last year, during which period the retailer opened 18 stores.

Fat Face was bought three years ago by private equity firm Advent, at which point it had just over 80 stores in the UK and a turnover of about£45 million.

It was then sold to private equity firm Bridgepoint Capital for an estimated£360 million in May last year after Advent had ramped up the chain’s UK portfolio to 128 shops.

Fat Face also has stores in Singapore, Qatar, Kuwait, Kuala Lumpur, Iceland, Ireland and Dubai. It opened its first Northern Irish outlet store in February this year at The Outlet retail park in Banbridge.

The retailer has also been boosted by John Lewis’s decision to stock the brand exclusively in its stores. It was represented on all the new deals by Mortlock Simmonds Brown Leverett.