CBRE secured first location abroad for the Romanian retailer Vagabond Studio

The store opened this May, located in the Eastern part of London, in Westfield Stratford City. This is the largest urban shopping center in UK by land and the 4th-largest shopping center in the country by retail space. “Made by Society” concept store occupies an area of 225 sq m, with a team of 15 sale people.

“It is a great satisfaction that, after advising a series of top brands to enter on the CEE or Romania markets, CBRE Romania had the opportunity to assist a true champion of the local retailing its launching on the most competitive market in Europe”, says Carmen Ravon, Head of Retail Occupiers CEE at CBRE. “With the excellent involvement of Vagabond Studio and the exceptional cooperation of CBRE London team, the store opening process took less than initial estimation and was the outcome of a successful partnership.”

Vagabond Studio’s decision to expand internationally was a natural step for the company, considering the large number and positive reaction of Western shoppers who visited the stores in Romania. Also, when decided to expand, the company took in consideration the income, standard of living and purchasing power of the UK market, assets that make this the biggest market in Europe. In Romania, Vagabond Studio is a top-perfoming retailer in terms of sales per square meter. Since 2014, the company opened 14 stores in shopping centers.

UK is one of the largest consumer markets of the world, according to the World Bank, and the 3rd retail market in Europe, after Germany and France, in terms of turnover. In 2021, the retail sales in UK were worth over 465 billion British pounds, according to Statista.com. Also, the retail industry consists of over 300,000 separate businesses and over 3 million employees, which represents over 8% of all UK jobs, according to British Retail Consortium (Brc.org.uk). For every pound spent, approximately 12 pence were spent in clothing shops, which is the second reason for spending, after food shops (39 pence). At the same time, UK is the second largest commercial real estate market in Europe, reaching 1.3 billion British pounds in 2021, according to Statista.com data.