EYES ON THE MIDDLE EAST: Britain’s John Lewis is aiming to expand to Asia with a shops-in-shop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, next month, followed by the Middle East with a location in Dubai in spring 2017.
Spanning more than 15,000 square feet, the Dubai outpost will be the retailer’s biggest shops-in-shop location overseas. Situated in Robinsons department store in the Dubai Festival City Mall, under Al-Futtaim, a Dubai-based business group, the store will carry the retailers’ brand of cookware, furniture, glassware, nursery and textiles. The store will also carry home accessories including bat, bedding and gifts. The interiors of the shops-in-shop area will be created by the retailer’s design team alongside Al-Futtaim and Robinsons.
As a part of its global rollout plan, the retailer will open a 630-square-foot shops-in-shop in Kuala Lumpur within Robinsons in March. John Lewis has 21 shops-in-shops across Singapore, the Philippines and South Korea with plans to open seven in the Netherlands this year and next.
“The success of our existing international shops-in-shops has given us the confidence to open in the Middle East and increase both the scale of the space and product assortment,” said John Lewis managing director Andy Street.
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