An Italian house arriving in London has no UK trading history and no covenant. That is a solvable problem, and it is most of the work.
Transaction facts
| Service | Market entry, retail strategy and acquisition |
| Locations | Mayfair, Knightsbridge, Covent Garden, Soho, Carnaby, Clerkenwell |
| Clients | Include Dolce & Gabbana Casa, DSquared2, Rubinacci, Boglioli, Sermoneta Gloves, Geox, Boffi, Brandy Melville |
| Languages | Negotiated in English and Italian |
The brief
A European brand opening its first London store faces a problem it has never faced at home: the landlord has no way to price the risk of it. There is no UK trading history, no UK covenant, often no UK entity. In Milan the name opens the door. In London the name means the landlord has heard of you and still wants a guarantee.
What we did
We act for Italian and European houses across the whole of that entry. The order matters: the address decision comes before the search, because a brand that starts by looking at available units ends up in the unit that happened to be available. We establish what the store is for — flagship, showroom, or a shop that has to trade — and only then open talks with landlords.
Then the covenant problem. A brand with no UK history is presented on what it actually is: the strength of the parent, the trading record at home, the fit with the landlord’s other tenants. Much of this is conducted in Italian on one side and English on the other, which is not a convenience but a substantive advantage — the brand explains itself to us without translating first, and nothing is lost on the way to the landlord.
The result
Italian and European brands placed across Mayfair, Knightsbridge, Covent Garden, Soho, Carnaby and Clerkenwell — fashion, tailoring, footwear, furniture, design and food. Several have come back for a second site.
The mistakes repeat, which is why we are useful: taking the first available unit on the right street instead of waiting for the right unit; specifying a London store to a home-market fit-out budget; and signing a lease whose review and break provisions were negotiated by someone reading them for the first time.