Fossil’s best year ever fuels store expansion

The US-owned retailer has 15 UK stores at present and wants to open a further 10 to 15 in the next four years. Fossil also has 100 stores across Europe and wants to open an additional 100 in the same period.

It is eyeing stores of 1,000 sq ft to 1,300 sq ft in locations including Leeds, Sheffield, Brighton, Kingston, Reading, Cardiff, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Dublin, and is also on the hunt for airport and train station stores.

It already operates shops in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Bristol, Glasgow.

Fossil vice-president, retail Europe Wolfgang Thoeren told Retail Week: “We’re in negotiations on several stores in the busiest places across the UK. The UK is a big market for us.”

Fossil Inc in the US last week reported its second-quarter results, revealing that group net income rocketed 227.8% to $54.5m (£34.9m), while net sales jumped 30.6% to $412.6m (£264.2m), in the 13 weeks to July 3. As well as its European stores Fossil operates about 240 stores across the US and 50 in Asia

Thoeren said last year the UK was Fossils’ best performing territory on a like-for-like basis, benefitting from consumers trading down.

“We prepared pretty well for the recession,” he said. “We were a winner in this crisis, among price- sensitive people. It was Fossil [group’s] best year ever last year, and the UK was the best market.”

He added that Fossil, which

traditionally sells accessories including leather goods, may look to roll out its clothing concept it has tested in the US.

In April, Fossil remodelled its Covent Garden store in London, to include a ground floor dedicated to apparel. Thoeren said the new UK stores might also follow the same format, but that the retailer was still “testing the water at the moment”.

Property agent Harper Dennis Hobbs acts for Fossil.