Womenswear sales at Footasylum helping drive new store expansion plans
Footasylum is planning a series of new store openings and upsizings across the UK in the year ahead, driven driven by a notable increase in demand for womenswear.
Footasylum will be targeting new store openings throughout 2023. The first of those to be confirmed is in Watford, Hertfordshire, which will open in Q3 2023. The new 6,000 sq ft store will be located in the Atria shopping centre in Watford and will bring Footasylum’s total number of stores to 60.
Other store openings will be announced in due course, and include plans for a high profile site in Central London.
The company is also upsizing a number of its existing sites. Stores being upsized include those in Westfield Stratford, Leeds White Rose and Lakeside Shopping Centre in Essex. Upon completion, all of these stores will be significantly bigger in size and will provide a comprehensive mens, junior and womenswear offering.
The new plans follow the opening of a new Footasylum store in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire in December 2022, which was the Company’s first new opening since April 2021 and its first under the ownership of Aurelius Group, which acquired Footasylum in August 2022.
The retailer was acquired for £37.5 million after the Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) ordered previous owner JD Sports to sell it amid competition concerns. JD had purchased the chain in 2019 for £90 million.
Barry Bown, Executive Chairman and CEO of Footasylum, said: “We have exciting plans to develop even bigger and better stores to cater for the growing demand for our brands. Our expansion plans will help ensure that our extensive product offering is given greater prominence and availability across the UK.”
Footaslum's most recent annual revenue (year ending 29 January 2022) saw growth of 21% to £281 million, up from £232 million in the prior year, with gross profit up 26%. Physical stores accounted for 51% of the company’s revenue, with online sales representing 46% and wholesale accounting for 3%.
