Kurt Geiger shifts focus away from UK
04/09/2012
It is opening 15 stores in Germany over the next 18 months and is planning to launch into Hong Kong, Macau, Shanghai and Beijing next year. It has also made its first forays into the US this year and is looking to open between 10 and 15 stores there by 2015.
Its chief executive Neil Clifford said business rates and rents for stores in the UK, particularly in the north, were too high, making it “unviable” to make profit in some cases.
The chain has 60 UK shops, 200 concessions and a £260m turnover, and in 2010 said it had the potential to open another 40 UK stores over the following five years.
However, Britain's third-largest shoe retailer will now focus overseas, where it is also hoping to grow its already established business in the Middle East, Russia, Turkey, France and Israel.
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