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Bloobloom eyewear to open five more London stores following new £5m investment

Tom Bottomley
14 March 2023

French designer eyewear brand Bloobloom, which was founded in 2018 and has stores on London’s Carnaby Street and Marylebone High Street, is to open five additional London stores in 2023, following a new £5m round of seed funding.

A store at Westfield White City will open by the end of March 2023, followed by stores at 30 James Street, Covent Garden, at the end of April 2023, Canary Wharf at the end of May 2023, Battersea Power Station, also in May, and at 33 King’s Road in June 2023.

Abbas Manai, Co-Founder of Bloobloom, said: “London is the perfect location to launch Bloobloom’s expansion as it’s such an iconic shopping destination. The city is where our target customer is and where we can tap into new customers.

“The success of our first two stores on Carnaby Street and Marylebone High Street indicates that there is large offline demand for an independent affordable luxury eyewear brand. Having an offline presence is also important in prescription eyewear as it allows the brand to provide better customer service.

“The UK market is one of the largest in Europe (£3bn) and offers excellent growth prospects for Bloobloom. Our strategy is to first focus our efforts on the UK and grow the brand further to have a solid foundation locally before expanding to continental Europe.”

The 800 sq ft Westfield London store will be located on the first floor, next to Swatch and near Adidas, H&M, L'Occitane en Provence and Sephora. It has been designed to ensure customers have a premium experience and includes two sight test rooms which offer free eye tests in a private space.

The brand's flagship store will be located at 30 James Street in Covent Garden, situated near Apple, Rituals and Tiffany & Co and boasts 1,413 sq ft over two floors. The 1,444 sq ft store at Battersea Power Station will be located on the ground floor, and the 700 sq ft Canary Wharf store will be located at Canada Place. The final store, at 33 Kings Road, will be the smallest of the new openings at 400 sq ft.

All of the new stores will house Bloobloom’s full collection of spectacles and sunglasses and will offer customers the full experience from walk-in eye examinations with in-house opticians, adjustment and repair services as well as personalised style advice.

Bloobloom offers a range of women’s and men’s glasses with popular styles including ‘Traveller’, ‘Daydreamer’, ‘Londoner’ and ‘Designer’. All glasses have handcrafted frames and are made from sustainable materials.

Abbas Manai added: “Our aim is to change, shape and develop the eyewear industry in the most efficient and affordable way. Our ‘Pair for a Pair’ scheme, as well as rewarding our returning customers with ‘Pay What You Can’, makes the brand stand out within the market. We want our brand to thrive on giving people cost-effective eyewear that is sustainable and stylish and are excited about the next chapter in the brand’s growth strategy.”

The new £5m in seed funding was mainly raised from Pembroke, DMGV (part of the Daily Mail Group) and CIV in December 2022, and follows a £1.5m seed round from DMGV and angel investors in March 2021.

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