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Could brands build a home in Boxpark?
BY SUZANNE BEARNE Boxfresh founder and now brand consultant Roger Wade has joined forces with property developers Hammerson and Ballymore to launch a new concept in shopping centres dubbed Boxpark. The so-called “pop-up” mall
(although it will be open for a minimum of fi ve years) will be built from 60 shipping containers like those used by trade show Bread & Butter at its January edition in Berlin. It will cover 18,000 sq ft of space opposite east London’s trendy private member’s club Shoreditch House and be adjacent to Shoreditch High Street railway station, which opened in April this year.
Eureka moment Wade, who now runs consultancy Brands Incorporated, fi rst hit on the idea 10 years ago when he still owned and ran the Boxfresh brand he founded in 1989. He subse-
What’s in the Box?
● Boxpark will open next August, with space for about 60 brands ● Tenants will rent a store for at least a year ● Most units will be 300 sq ft, but a few brands will be allowed to take over multiple units for a larger retail space ● Rents will be about 50% lower than traditional store rents in the area
quently sold Boxfresh to Pentland Brands in 2005, but the notion of a shipping container mall kept coming back to him. “I’d wanted to create a shop out
of a container for a long time as I’ve always had a fascination with containers,” Wade tells Drapers. “I wanted to open a Boxfresh shop out of containers, but then I sold it [Boxfresh] and never had the oppor- tunity to do it. But the idea started coming to me more after seeing a scheme in California, which was a mall just for brands. The site [in Shoreditch] became available and I knew I could make it a reality.” The timing is interesting. Wade
fi rmly believes there is a backlash brewing against the homogeneous British high street, but says brands struggle to launch at retail because of sky-high rents. He declines to give details on leases available, but claims Boxpark’s rents would be about 50% lower than traditional store rents in the Shoreditch area. Wade hopes to create a venue
that people want to return to. He says: “There will be no high street retailers at all. I feel like British fashion has been taken over by high street retailers. It’s become about how cheaply they can source product and how much they can market their product. Brands can’t aff ord high street rent or perhaps don’t want to sit next to a high street retailer.” So if Topshop approached Wade
and off ered him a chunk of money to enter Boxpark, he would turn them down? “I’d say: ‘I love what
8 Drapers December 3 2010
Aerial view: the mall’s location would be the highlighted patch towards the front of this picture
you do Topshop, but no thanks’. If it brought a catwalk collection that isn’t available anywhere else, then potentially [I’d let it in]. But in terms of traditional retailers, that’s not what I want.”
Helping smaller brands
Wade says he is in talks with about 20 brands so far and is interested in streetwear Stussy,
brands Carhartt premium and casualwear
brands Fred Perry, APC, Nigel Cabourn and Heritage Research, and young fashion brands Nudie and Religion.
The scheme could help brands with no prior retail experience to test the water, according to Wade. While there is no planned
programme opening
“hand-holding” through
the and process, he explains
trading that
brands would benefi t from not being tied into a lease
for a long period and testing out the move from wholesale to retail on a low-risk basis. There is also little competition at retail
in the
area but a high volume of young, creative types visiting local bars and restaurants, who have money to spend.
Gavin Murphy, sales director at young
fashion used as brand
Lyle & Scott agrees that Boxpark could be
a
testbed. “It would give us access to an area we don’t normally deal with but we would have to get
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