The Fragrance Shop plans central London store and ramps up overseas ambitions

The retailer is in discussions about opening on sites in central London, including Oxford Street, and large shopping malls.

The Fragrance Shop chief executive Sanjay Vadera said: “It is one of the highest footfall streets in the world with lots of tourism. We sell branded product and I think The Fragrance Shop would do well.”

Vadera said The Fragrance Shop has stores in London suburbs but isn’t present in central London. He added that the retailer has the flexibility to fit into different sites because of its smaller standard stores, larger browsing formats and its new trend-led Indulge Fragrances fascia.

The 160-store retailer plans to open 20 shops across the UK this year.

The Fragrance Shop also wants to launch its first localised overseas website in September ahead of opening its first international shop in Europe.

Vadera said it could potentially trial the international websites first in Germany and France, as its UK website already receives traffic from these countries.

He added: “Online will give us an indication [as to where to open the first overseas store] and we will feel more confident in the marketplace.”

The plans come as The Fragrance Shop revealed full-year EBITDA increased 9.2% to £12.4m. Sales surged 11.2% to £90.1m in the year to March 31, while like-for-likes jumped 8%. It said managing director Nigel Lawmon is to depart and be replaced by group finance director Pete King.

Vadera said that since year-end The Fragrance Shop has traded well. “We had a great Father’s Day campaign and we are massively up in like-for-likes on June.

“It’s down to us being very focused on customer service. We get customer feedback in real time. There is a real drive to ensure we are wowing customers all the time.”

Over the past year, The Fragrance Shop introduced a new service called Try It First, which allows online customers to receive a free sample of their selected fragrance so they can decide whether they like it before they open the full-size product.

It also introduced new brands such as Estée Lauder and expanded into beauty with ranges from brands Korres and Trilogy.