Brand Empire to bring new Spanish fashion parade to the UK

Land Securities, through its subsidiary Brand Empire, has announced today that it has agreed terms with Grupo Cortefiel, one of Spain’s largest and leading fashion retailers, to bring three of its core brands to the UK.

This is the first deal concluded with a retailer using the innovative Brand Empire vehicle which was set up to attract new entrants to the UK market to help evolve the retail offer and drive footfall.

The three brands, Cortefiel, Springfield and women’secret, will target a launch in the spring/summer, with discussions for first locations currently underway. It is anticipated that the second phase of openings for these internationally recognised brands will happen in the autumn with further prime shopping locations targeted over the next five years.

Brand Empire, acting as incubator, will invest in the store set up and employees. The brands of Grupo Cortefiel will be responsible for the product line and brand marketing.

Richard Akers, Managing Director Retail for Land Securities, commented: “Brand Empire was born out of the recognition of the difficulties experienced by some retailers in accessing our market. The innovative approach makes it easier for new brands to enter the UK and has the potential to play a significant role in the evolution of the retail environment. The benefit to us is that we gain a greater understanding of the retail business model as well as potentially helping these retailers become a major presence in the UK.”

Ezequiel Szafir, General Manager for Grupo Cortefiel, commented “Our brands Cortefiel, Springfield and women’secret are already present in over 60 countries around the world, and opening stores in the UK was our obvious next step. This innovative arrangement with Brand Empire will give us quick access with high presence while reducing some of the risks usually encountered when entering a new market.”

The Brand Empire team acts independently when offering retailers an unrivalled insight into the local market and innovative partnership approach. It is backed by one of the UK’s largest landlords, Land Securities, but has been established with its own board and employees. Brand Empire will negotiate arms-length lettings with Land Securities and other major UK landlords for prime retail locations.

source : Land Securities

Land Securities celebrated an award hat-trick at the ninth annual ‘Sustainable City Awards’ held in London on 18 February. Presented by the Corporation of London these national awards, known as the "Green Oscars", recognise and reward UK organisations for outstanding achievement and innovation across all aspects of sustainability.

Land Securities was the winner of two of the eleven categories Tackling Climate Change for its voluntary carbon reduction programme in the shopping centre portfolio and Responsible Waste Management for the introduction of a ‘zero waste to landfill’ policy for its London occupiers. It was short listed in the Resource Conservation category and named as winner of the Sustain Magazine “Leadership In Sustainability” Award.

Dave Farebrother, Head of Environment, commented on Land Securities’ winning approach; ”It is always good to have your initiatives recognised through respected accolades especially when those achievements are a reflection of the way the wider company is addressing environmental issues.

“Our property portfolio covers 29,000,000 sq ft so reducing CO2 and waste are two key issues that we need our property managers and occupiers to recognise and address. Advances in technology introduced alongside simple changes in behaviour can achieve some of the strongest results, in this case diverting some 4,639 tonnes of rubbish from landfill and achieving estimated annual savings of £100,000 from reduced energy and water usage. Our awards recognise that good environmental practices make good business sense.”

This year’s key-note speaker, David Kennedy, CEO of the Committee on Climate Change added, “Business will be key in achieving the UK’s target to cut emissions by 80% in 2050. It is important to recognise and reward the efforts made by those getting sustainable business practices right. We hope that other businesses will then follow suit, reaping benefits both in terms of the bottom line and contributing to tackling climate change.”

The Sustainable City Awards are one of ten UK feeder schemes for the European Business Awards and over 200 organisations entered the awards scheme this year