Footasylum furthers expansion with new Birmingham and Watford stores

Footasylum has continued its expansion with the opening of two new stores, having opened a new site in the Bullring in Birmingham, and one in the atria shopping centre in Watford. 

Following these openings, the group said an upsized store in Fosse Park Leicester will also be opening next month. 

The new Birmingham store is located on the ground floor of the Bullring shopping centre, in a site that was previously occupied by New Look. It is the latest store to use Footasylum’s new design concept, which was first launched in Lakeside in Essex earlier this year and followed closely by its flagship store on Oxford Street. 

It uses advanced digital capabilities to create a mobile-first customer journey that “seamlessly connects Footasylum’s online and in-store offerings”.

The Bullring store is spread across more than 11,000 sq.ft, and has an “extensive” men’s and junior offering across apparel and footwear, with a dedicated basement floor exclusively for women’s apparel and footwear. 

Footasylum previously occupied a smaller, 2,500 sq.ft site in the same shopping centre, and having moved to a site that is now over four times larger, it has employed an additional 40 members of staff, with a total headcount of 80.

Meanwhile, the new atria Watford store is spread across more than 6,000 sq.ft and employs 35 people. It also follows the new store design concept, and closely resembles a smaller version of the new flagship Oxford Street store.

Footasylum’s next store opening will be in Leicester’s Fosse Park, and will officially open in November. The store will extend to 6,400 sq.ft and be spread across two floors, replacing the Company’s previous single storey, 4,000 sq.ft store at the site. 

Other recent store openings include Westfield Stratford City and Lakeside Shopping Centre in Essex, both of which completed earlier this year, as well as the company’s flagship 20,000 sq.ft Oxford Street store, which opened in September. 

Barry Bown, executive chairman and CEO of Footasylum, said: “2023 has been a transformational year for Footasylum, and these latest openings are further testament to our team’s amazing ability to deliver state-of-the-art stores for our customers across the country. They take our tally for 2023 to six openings or upsizings, with more to come next year. 

“Our expansion strategy has seen us enter a number of prime locations across the UK including Oxford Street, Europe’s most popular shopping destination, where our 20,000 sq.ft flagship store is performing strongly since it opened in September.”

He added: “With our new and improved store network, we are well positioned to meet the strong and growing demand for our branded streetwear. We are looking forward to a successful Black Friday and Christmas trading period and announcing more exciting Footasylum developments in 2024.”