Lakeside shopping centre in Essex has opened stores for Bershka, Hollister, Oliver Bonas and Urban Outfitters, its latest wave of fashion openings. Pradera, which asset manages the centre on behalf of owner SGS UK Retail, said retail occupiers have invested more than £100 million at Lakeside over the past three years, as the site continues to attract international fashion brands.
The four stores occupy a combined 29,000 sq ft across Lakeside’s upper and lower malls. Bershka has taken 12,500 sq ft on Level 2, alongside Hollister‘s 6,000 sq ft nearby. Urban Outfitters has opened a 6,500 sq ft store on Level 1, and Oliver Bonas a 4,000 sq ft unit on the lower level. Inditex, which owns Bershka alongside Zara and other chains, is set to occupy more than 125,000 sq ft across Lakeside by the end of the year.
Four openings in one wave
Bershka’s new store carries the trend-led womenswear, menswear and accessories that have driven the Inditex-owned chain’s expansion across UK shopping centres. Hollister, owned by Abercrombie and Fitch, is trading casualwear, sportswear, swimwear and fragrance from its unit. Urban Outfitters, part of US group URBN, has brought its fashion, lifestyle and culture format to Lakeside’s Level 1, while Oliver Bonas, an independently owned multi-site retailer, has opened a fashion, lifestyle and design store on the lower level.
Continued investor confidence in the centre
Robert Jewell, managing director of asset management at Pradera, said: “The arrival of Bershka, Hollister, Oliver Bonas and Urban Outfitters demonstrates the continued confidence that leading international retailers have in Lakeside, and the strength of demand from our visitors. Together, these brands significantly enhance the breadth of fashion on offer, cementing its position as a best-in-class lifestyle location, and one of the UK’s highest performing shopping destinations.” Pradera manages Lakeside on behalf of owner SGS UK Retail, with Smith Young and LM acting as retail leasing agents.
Good to know
An asset manager such as Pradera runs the day-to-day leasing and marketing of a shopping centre on behalf of its owner, in this case SGS UK Retail, which holds the freehold.
Part of a wider £100m investment drive
The four openings form part of the more than £100 million retail occupiers have invested in Lakeside over the past three years, Pradera said, without breaking the figure down by individual store fit-out. None of the four retailers operates through franchising in the UK; all four trade through company-owned stores, a distinction explained in our guide to how franchising works in the UK, reflecting how large shopping centres continue to compete for corporate fashion chains rather than independent operators for their most prominent units.
What comes next
Lakeside has not said which retailers might follow these four openings, though Inditex’s planned expansion to more than 125,000 sq ft by the end of the year points to further store moves at the centre before 2026 closes. For multi-site retailers weighing UK shopping centre space, Lakeside’s run of openings suggests established fashion chains still see out-of-town destinations as worth the investment, even as high street footfall remains under pressure elsewhere in the sector. Shopping centre units of this kind are also the format many restaurant franchises recruiting in the UK target for their own openings, where the investment required is set out in our guide to what it costs to open a franchise in the UK.
