E-tailer Coggles makes physical stores comeback

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 5, 2017

Premium fashion and lifestyle retailer Coggles has made a comeback to the high street with the opening of its ‘first’ physical store in prosperous Alderley Edge in Cheshire.

The brand, which is now owned by fast-expanding multibrand business The Hut Group, has opened a 4,000 sq ft location in a converted bank on a corner site. The store offers a selection of brands including Isabel Marant, Alexander Wang, Aesop and Tom Dixon across both women’s and menswear, plus beauty and interiors.

The UK’s large stock of now-closed banks has been a gift for retail stores and restaurants looking for premises with plenty of original features and Coggles is making the most of the interior of the building. It has retained its parquet flooring and is using the converted bank vaults as a sneaker and shoe vault.

The company chose the location because of the affluent catchment area with store manager Marisa Shutt telling the local newspaper: “We chose this location in Alderley Edge for our flagship store due to its unique premises, which offer the perfect platform in which to showcase our global luxury brands, and also because it’s one of the most prestigious destinations in the North West.”

She also said it acts as “an extension of our online site” and that’s no surprise given that the brand has been an online pureplay in recent years.

It was launched in 1970s as Sarah Coggles and moved into e-tail relatively early in the channel’s development. But it went into administration four years ago and was acquired, then relaunched, by The Hut Group as a pureplay.

The move back into the physical stores arena reflects an increasing number of e-tailers, such as Missguided, opening bricks-and-mortar stores as they make the most of experience-based retail and open physical stores only in the highest-traffic, premium areas.