British Land : Meadowhall chosen for Joe Browns’ global debut

04 Jul 2017

British Land, joint owner of Meadowhall, Yorkshire's premier shopping destination, has announced that mail order and e-commerce retailer, Joe Browns, will open its first physical store at the centre in the autumn.

The 4,000 sq ft store in the centre's High Street will be designed by Dalziel and Pow. The store's opening will coincide with the launch of the brand's new Autumn Winter 2017 collection of clothing and accessories for men and women.

British Land's True Value of Stores research reveals that stores improve brand awareness, customer service and trust and that physical also contributes to online sales that do not directly touch the store. It also predicts that retailers that can offer a seamless omnichannel experience for shoppers are likely to outperform.

Richard Crowther, Asset Manager for British Land, said: 'Such a unique brand choosing Meadowhall for its global debut demonstrates Meadowhall's firm position as a leading UK retail and leisure destination. We think it's a strong endorsement of our work to create environments that reflect the way people shop and demonstrates the importance of an omnichannel offering for today's retailers.'

Simon Brown, Managing Director and Founderof Joe Browns, added: 'We are thrilled at the opportunity to launch our first ever store within Meadowhall, offering our existing loyal customers a new way to shop with us and allowing us to meet a brand new audience. This is a really exciting step for the company that will transform us into a true multi-channel retailer and we can't wait to start that journey at Meadowhall.'

David Dalziel, Creative Director at Dalziel & Pow, said: 'Designing a store for a popular online brand is a huge responsibility, we need to reflect their core strengths in a way that is truly individual and appealing to the new audience it is about to meet. Joe Browns is full of personality, so it's clear we have lots of inspiring content to build on.'

A string of premium brands have recently committed to Meadowhall including Flannels, Neal's Yard, Tag Heuer and Nespresso. House of Fraser, All Saints, Hollister and Hugo Boss are also redesigning their stores.

These lettings and redesigns complement the centre's £60m refurbishment which is currently underway, as well as the £16 million retailer investment made by 42 brands that have redesigned stores since the start of the refurbishment last year. A further 31 store reformat projects are currently taking place, due to complete in line with the culmination of the refurbishment programme towards the end of the year.

Smith Young and CBRE represented British Land. CWM represented Joe Browns.

Notes to Editors

About British Land
Our portfolio of high quality UK commercial property is focused on Retail around the UK and London Offices. We own or manage a portfolio valued at £19.1 billion (British Land share: £13.9 billion) as at 31 March 2017 making us one of Europe's largest listed real estate investment companies.

Our strategy is to provide places which meet the needs of our customers and respond to changing lifestyles - Places People Prefer. We do this by creating great environments both inside and outside our buildings and use our scale and placemaking skills to enhance and enliven them. This expands their appeal to a broader range of occupiers, creating enduring demand and driving sustainable, long term performance.

Our Retail portfolio is focused on Regional and Local multi-let centres, and accounts for 48% of our portfolio. Our Offices portfolio comprises three office-led campuses in central London as well as high quality standalone buildings and accounts for 49% of our portfolio. Increasingly our focus is on providing a mix of uses and this is most evident at Canada Water, our 46 acre redevelopment opportunity where we have plans to create a new neighbourhood for London.

Sustainability is embedded throughout our business. Our places, which are designed to meet high sustainability standards, become part of local communities, provide opportunities for skills development and employment and promote wellbeing. Our industry-leading sustainability performance led to British Land being named a European Sector Leader in the 2016 Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark for the third year running.

In April 2016 British Land received the Queen's Award for Enterprise: Sustainable Development, the UK's highest accolade for business success for economic, social and environmental achievements over a period of five years.

Further details can be found on the British Land website at www.britishland.com.

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