The UK was the first European country Uniqlo entered when it began expanding to the continent decades ago and it still rates the market highly with new plans announced to open a number of stores in Britain.
A rendering of the planned Birmingham store
It will debut in Glasgow and Birmingham this autumn and has also confirmed its opening date for Liverpool — 24 April.
With the large size of the stores Uniqlo opens, these are major investments for parent company Fast Retailing and the Japanese group said they’re building on the recent successful new store openings in Edinburgh and London.
Given the firm’s well-established UK presence, it’s easy to forget how many key cities still don’t have a Uniqlo. The very first Scottish store on Princes Street store in Edinburgh opened only last April and so the planned Glasgow arrival will be only its second Scottish space. It will be on Argyle Street in the heart of Scotland’s most populous city, with three floors of sales, equating to 1,200 sq m.
Meanwhile, the planned new Birmingham store will be Uniqlo’s first in the Midlands and will be located in the Bullring on New Street. It will have a sales floor of approximately 1,100 sq m, again covering three storeys to make the most of the footfall to the giant mall in the country’s second-largest city.
The product mix will feature LifeWear for all genders and all ages including kids and babies.
Paul O’Brien, Director of Leasing & Commercialisation at Bullring landlord Hammerson, said: “Bullring continues to attract best-in-class global brands seeking a flagship presence in the region, reinforcing its position as the leading Midlands destination. Uniqlo is the latest brand to make a significant commitment to Bullring, reflecting the strength of our position, quality of the asset, and exceptional line-up of leading names in retail.”
As mentioned, the Liverpool store will open in late April at the now-Landsec-controlled Liverpool One mega-mall. Located on Paradise Street, the large new store will feature Uniqlo’s popular services such as UTme! customisable T-shirt station and a dedicated Re.Uniqlo Studio for repairs and recycling.
It’s also collaborating with local partners for the opening with the activity set to kick off via Girls On The Go Liverpool, an organisation that promotes women’s health and empowerment and that will be hosting Uniqlo run clubs in the lead up to opening day.
The company currently has 20 UK stores, all of them large-format locations, with the most recent opening having been another London store, in Coal Drops Yard, King’s Cross.
The 2025 edition of the Andam Prize (National Association for the Development of the Fashion Arts) introduces a jury infused with artistic and cultural sensibility. Under the presidency of Sidney Toledano—the esteemed LVMH executive and president of the French Fashion Institute (IFM)—this year’s panel includes a lineup of prominent French figures from the worlds of music, film, and contemporary art.
Among them: singer Lucky Love, actress Lou Doillon, singer-songwriter Eddy de Pretto, and art dealer Emmanuel Perrotin. Handpicked by Toledano, who also serves as patron of this 36th edition, these new jurors reflect a broader cultural perspective in evaluating the next generation of fashion talent.
The 11 guest jurors selected for the 36th edition of the competition. – ANDAM
Eleven guest members will join the permanent jury, which includes 22 representatives from Andam’s two founding partners—the French Ministry of Culture and DEFI—alongside major private sponsors. New to the patron circle this year is Alexandre Mattiussi, founder of Ami Paris and winner of the Andam Prize in 2013, now returning as a sponsor and mentor.
Other guest jurors include Pascal Morand, executive president of the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode; Sarah Andelman, founder of the legendary concept store Colette and consulting agency Just an Idea; journalist Sophie Fontanel; filmmaker Loïc Prigent; Georgian influencer Beka Gvishiani of the Style Not Com Instagram account; Ethiopian model Liya Kebede; and American stylist and creative consultant Carlos Nazario.
Andam opened its call for applications in January. Founded in 1989 by Nathalie Dufour, who continues to serve as the organization’s executive director, the prize maintains its generous €700,000 endowment, matching the 2024 edition. Finalists will be announced in late May.
The winners will be revealed on June 30, 2025, with five prizes to be awarded. The Grand Prix de l’Andam will offer €300,000, while the Grand Prix Spécial, the Prix Pierre Bergé, the Accessories Prize, and the Innovation Prize will each award €100,000. Alexandre Mattiussi will serve as the mentor for the Prix Pierre Bergé, and further details about the Innovation Prize are expected to be announced soon.
Poland’s biggest e-commerce company Allegro said on Monday it has named Marcin Kusmierz as its new CEO from June.
Reuters
Kusmierz will replace Roy Perticucci, Allegro’s CEO since September 2022, who will become the group’s special adviser.
He will formally take over from Perticucci as CEO of Allegro’s Polish unit in May and of the group at the annual shareholder meeting in June, Allegro said.
The transition will enable a “smooth and structured” handover of responsibilities, Allegro added.
Under Perticucci, an e-commerce veteran who had previously led European operations and customer fulfilment at Amazon.com, Allegro launched its marketplaces in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary after it bought Mall Group in 2022.
Kusmierz will need to deal with the continued turnaround of Mall Group and competition from domestic and international rivals, including Temu.
He has more than 25 years of professional experience in the technology, e-commerce, fintech, and AI industries, Allegro said.
Most recently he was CEO at Shoper, opens new tab, which offers software for e-commerce businesses. Under Kusmierz’s leadership, Shoper achieved the highest growth of any e-commerce platform in Central and Eastern Europe between 2021 and 2024, Allegro said.
In recent years, Kusmierz has also successfully invested in payment, logistics, cloud, and AI companies, the company added.
PVH Corp., the owner of the Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger brands, is expecting sales growth to be flat or slightly positive this year, outpacing analysts’ expectations.
Calvin Klein
The outlook, which excludes currency fluctuations, surpasses the average analyst estimate of a 0.5% revenue decline for the period from the previous year. It’s more cautious than the view offered by Chief Executive Officer Stefan Larsson in December, when he projected “modest growth” for 2025. Revenue decreased 5% on a constant currency basis in 2024, the company said in a statement.
The shares jumped 14% at 4:16 p.m. in extended trading in New York.
Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger sales were good over the holidays and started the year at a solid pace, but then revenue slowed starting in February, Larsson said in an interview with Bloomberg News.
While sales improved slightly in March, “it’s still a tougher consumer backdrop in North America and then a continued tough backdrop in the China consumer as well,” he said.
US and Canadian consumers are facing inflationary pressure and are reporting lower confidence in their feelings about the future, Larsson added.
In February, PVH was blacklisted by China as part of actions Beijing has taken in the escalating trade war with the US since President Donald Trump took office. China’s Ministry of Commerce in February said that PVH undertook damaging actions against Chinese companies, without elaborating. Chinese authorities said in September that PVH was being investigated for allegedly boycotting cotton sourced from the Xinjiang region.
Shares of PVH have slumped nearly 40% this year, in part due to uncertainty over what actions China might take against the company. Citi analyst Paul Lejuez recently wrote that punishments could include fines, store closures or revoking work permits and denying workers access to the country.
Larsson declined to comment on China’s actions against PVH and said the company would provide additional details during its call with analysts on Tuesday morning. The company has previously said it complies with laws in all countries where it operates.
PVH generated around 6% of revenue in China in fiscal 2023 and around 16% of profit.
PVH sees revenue in its current quarter in the range of flat to down 1% from a year earlier on a constant currency basis — less than the average decline estimated by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
The company also said on Monday that it plans to enter into an accelerated share repurchase agreement in April to buy $500 million shares of its common stock this year.
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