This week, Harrods revealed plans to launch a standalone beauty fascia, with the first store to open at Intu Lakeside shopping centre in Essex in spring 2020.
The fascia, known as H Beauty, will take up a 23,000sq ft unit for its debut store at Lakeside. Harrods has also earmarked a second store outside of London, the exact location of which is to be revealed soon. This innovative new beauty fascia is being rolled out as a way to adapt and respond to the decline of department stores and will give Harrods the opportunity to introduce their unique store experience to a much wider audience.
It has been a busy year or two for Harrods – the launch of H Beauty comes after Harrods opened its 90,000sq ft beauty emporium at its flagship Knightsbridge store in June and the new 9,000sq ft skincare space that opened in October.
H beauty will stock premium luxury beauty brands from the likes of Chanel, Dior and Huda Beauty, to brands completely new to the store and also those exclusive to Harrods. There will also be services in store such as blow-dries and facials, and customers will be able to enjoy drinks and light refreshments at the “coffee-to-cocktail” bar.
In a statement, Harrods said it wanted H Beauty to disrupt the current UK beauty retail landscape by bringing its “unrivalled beauty authority” to a wider audience of beauty lovers across the UK.
“Nobody is doing or investing more to showcase to customers what is possible in the world of 21st-century beauty than Harrods,” said Harrods beauty director Annalise Fard. “With the opening of our new state-of-the-art beauty retail space in Knightsbridge in June 2019 and the 9,000sq ft skincare emporium in October 2019, we are on a mission to show the world the art of what is truly possible in the world of beauty today. This investment demonstrates our belief in the strength of our beauty authority and the opportunities within the beauty industry here in the UK, and represents a major extension to our current beauty business.”
