Gymshark Seeking New Sites As It Opens Westfield Stratford City
Sports clothing and accessories retailer Gymshark has opened a second London store at Westfield Stratford City, and founder Ben Francis told Bisnow that the company is hoping to open more stores in the UK, other countries in Europe and to make its debut in New York.
Francis said that for non-flagship stores he is typically looking for locations from around 3.5K SF to 5.5K SF, with the new Stratford outlet, which opened its doors on 13 July, at circa 5K SF, with locations dictated by availability.
“Our Regent Street store has performed fantastically well, but I’m learning as an online retailer that when you want to open physical stores, there has to be an element of opportunism about it because, unlike online, availability is not instant,” Francis said.
“When we opened the original store it was a completely new venture for us and we didn’t really know what to expect or whether it would simply be a branding platform. This is our first shopping centre location, and obviously the high footfall here and the size and location of the store is what attracted us,” he added.
Francis, who built his business from his family home after becoming a huge gym fan, is determined that the new store will be opened up for more community services and events, with shop fixtures organised so that they can be moved to create event spaces. In addition, some merchandise is exclusive to the store.
Although there is a strong sportswear presence at the mall, Francis said that Gymshark was more focused on the high footfall at the centre rather than being part of a sports cluster, as it is very specifically targeted at gym-goers.
“We absolutely want to open more stores in the UK. I’m not going to put a figure on how many because it will largely be dictated by finding the right sites,” he said. “We also would love one day to open a New York store. Again it’s about finding the right place, but we have announced that we’re going to open a pop-up there which will be open for 12 months and will be in the heart of Manhattan.”
In results for 2023 announced earlier this year, Gymshark posted sales up 15% from 2022 to £556M, which the retailer said was “underpinned by the relevance and quality of our product” and “the resonance of our brand”.
Despite surging sales, the Solihull-headquartered company’s pre-tax profits fell to £13M for the 12 months to 31 July 2023, down from £27.8M. However, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, excluding exceptional costs, increased from £39.9M to £45.3M, and Gymshark said at the time that it focused on this metric “due to its proxy for underlying trading performance.”
