John Lewis is making its first move into continental Europe with plans to open departments in seven De Bijenkorf stores in the Netherlands by 2017.
The first three will open in spring 2016 at the Dutch group’s flagship stores in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague. They will be followed by additional openings in Eindhoven and Utrecht by the end of next year and in Amstelveen and Maastricht in 2017.
The European openings follow John Lewis’s foray into Singapore, the Philippines and South Korea, where it has outlets in department stores as part of plans to export to up to 15 countries over the next few years.
All of the department store areas feature the brand’s homewares, including bedding, bathroom goods and gifts.
Andy Street, the managing director of John Lewis, said: “We’re delighted to be debuting our first European shop-in-shop and De Bijenkorf is the perfect partner to enable us to bring John Lewis to a new customer base and country. Our existing shop-in-shops in Singapore, the Philippines and South Korea have been well received and are trading well.” He said the group was likely to sign up more department store partners overseas next year.
The latest expansion comes as Street said he was expecting John Lewis would “win Christmas” for the seventh year in a row. He said Black Friday had changed the shape of the festive season so there were now three peaks – the US-inspired discount day on 27 November; the weeks before Christmas and the post-Christmas sales.
Street reiterated his prediction that Black Friday would be bigger than last year and that Asda’s move to scale back on the discount day would not change the market this year. “Suppliers have already made the product ranges and every fashion retailers has planned its promotional programme,” he said. “Looking forward to future years other retailers might say ‘hang on let’s think about this’.”
Street said retailers would need to hold their nerve on discounting during the expected dip in trading post-Black Friday, as the Christmas peak was likely to come later than ever this year. He said demand for click and collect services was growing fast and delaying Christmas purchases. “Christmas is getting later and later every year. It’s all about confidence in online supply,” he added.
