Kate Spade opens first UK travel retail store

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jul 10, 2017

High-end handbag brand Kate Spade New York has taken a deep dive into UK travel retail with an opening at Britain’s (and one of the world’s) largest airports, Heathrow.

The new store is at Terminal 5 and is a pop-up that will stay open for eight months. It comes as the company is fociusing on European expansion and last month opened its first Paris store at 418 rue Saint Honoré.

The Heathrow opening makes good commercial sense for the brand. The distinctive Richard Rogers-designed building opened nine years ago and has since become the busiest of thegiant airport’s terminals, which means a huge potential customer base for the label. T5 was designed to deal with 35 million passengers a year and has almost reached this level.

The new kate Spade store will offer the brand’s signature whimsical bags and accessories as well as more classic pieces from its bags, small leathergoods, fashion apparel, jewellery, technology and stationery offer.

The store reflects the overall Kate Spade style with its green display walls, wooden flooring, mirrored accents and distinctive lighting.

Kate Spade is currently in the process of being acquired for $2.4 billion by its luxury accessories peer Coach, with the company's tender offer set to expire at 17:00 EDT on Monday (July 10).