John Lewis opened the doors of its first store in Essex this morning; the 90,000q ft three-storey store forms part of Chelmsford’s £150m Bond Street development.
The new store, which represented an £18m investment for the group, features the most extensive beauty department of its small full-line department stores. Spanning 7,900sq ft it houses brands such as MAC, Charlotte Tilbury and Nars.
The group recently announced that beauty would be a key growth area for the business and has invested £9m across its portfolio to “super charge” its beauty offer.
Fashion brands on offer in Chelmsford include Ralph Lauren, Whistles, Finery and John Lewis’s new premium own brand modern rarity, which it unveiled in June and which hits stores this month.
Other features of the new store include a Kuoni travel concession and Benugo’s new Bar:Cafe concept which serves prosecco on tap as well as coffee.
“Today marks a very exciting time for John Lewis and we’re delighted to open the doors to our first shop in Essex. It’s one of our most modern shops to date and brings together the very best of John Lewis’ products and services,” said branch manager Laura Rawstron.
John Lewis first broke ground on the development in January 2015. The store’s opening takes the group’s portfolio to 47 stores, which includes 33 department stores, 12 at home stores as well as shops at St Pancras International and Heathrow Terminal 2.
