Romanian retailer Vagabond Studio expands abroad with a store in London

Romanian retailer Vagabond Studio decided to take its “Made by Society” clothing brand abroad. Following an investment of around EUR 800,000, the company opened a store in Westfield Stratford City in London last month.

CBRE Romania, a leader in the real estate consultancy market, has secured Vagabond Studio’s first location outside Romania. The “Made by Society” concept store in the UK covers 225 square meters and works with a sales team of 15 people.

“Vagabond Studio is the first Romanian retailer who enters the British market assisted by a real estate consultant from Romania,” CBRE said.

The company also said that Vagabond Studio’s decision to expand internationally was a rather natural step, considering “the large number and positive reaction of Western shoppers who visited the stores in Romania.” Also, when deciding to expand, the retailer took into consideration “the income, standard of living and purchasing power of the UK market, assets that make this the biggest market in Europe.”

In Romania, Vagabond Studio is a top-performing retailer in terms of sales per square meter. Since 2014, the company has opened 14 stores in shopping centers in Bucharest, Brasov, Cluj-Napoca, Constanta, Iasi, Ploiesti, Sibiu, and Timisoara and has reached a team of 300 employees. Its manufacturing facility is based in Botosani, the Romanian hometown of the founding family.

According to the same source, the Romanian retailer’s “Made by Society” label was inspired by street culture.

The UK is one of the largest consumer markets in the world, according to the World Bank, and the 3rd retail market in Europe, after Germany and France, in terms of turnover, CBRE said. In 2021, the retail sales in the UK were worth over GBP 465 billion, according to Statista.com. Also, the retail industry consists of over 300,000 separate businesses and over 3 million employees, which represents over 8% of all UK jobs, according to the British Retail Consortium. For every pound spent, approximately 12 pence were spent in clothing shops, which is the second reason for spending, after food shops (39 pence).

CBRE also quoted other Statista.com data saying that the UK is the second-largest commercial real estate market in Europe, reaching GBP 1.3 billion in 2021.

(Photo source: CBRE)