John Lewis is to open a department store at Westfield shopping centre in West London.
The 230,000 sq. ft. branch covering an impressive four floors will be one of the biggest in Britain and will anchor a £1 billion extension of the shopping centre, scheduled to open in 2017.
Managing director of John Lewis, Andy Street, said: “Our business in London has strengthened significantly over recent years. It is therefore right that we now move to open in Westfield London and bring our offer to customers in the west of the city.”
The deal follows three years of negotiations. The new John Lewis will cost about £30 million and create 600 new jobs. The department store will stock more than 350,000 lines in departments including technology and fashion, however is unlikely to have a food hall.
It will place a greater importance on home departments such as lighting, rugs and furniture than in most stores, because west Londoners spend more on their flats and houses than shoppers elsewhere in the UK, Mr Street said.
Michael Gutman, Westfield’s European managing director, said: “John Lewis is the most requested store at Westfield London and we are delighted that we will soon be able to deliver on this for our customers.”
As well as its flagship store in Oxford Street, John Lewis currently has branches at Westfield Stratford City, Kingston and Brent Cross, a home-only outlet in Croydon, and Peter Jones in Sloane Square. Bosses turned down the opportunity to open at Westfield London a decade ago over concerns that it would “cannibalise” sales from Oxford Street. That left House of Fraser and Debenhams as the mall’s anchor department stores.
However Mr Street said he had “no regrets” about the decision, as it had given the business time to strengthen its central London branches.
He added: “John Lewis and other retailers like Selfridges have played a central role in the renaissance of the West End. It was the most important contribution we could have made in the last 10 years, and if we had gone into Westfield it would not have been the same story — the West End would not have been as robust as it is now. I am sure we did the right thing.”
The Westfield extension will also see the development of 1,500 new homes, and is part of a multi-billion regeneration of the White City area. Other elements include a new campus for Imperial College London and the redevelopment of the former BBC Television Centre in Wood Lane.
Leader of Hammersmith and Fulham council, Nicholas Botterill, said: “The arrival of John Lewis is further proof that White City is becoming unmatched as a centre for shopping and leisure.”
