Baugur plans expansion in Germany

Baugur is planning major expansion in Germany as it looks to take its UK fashion brands into new territories. Baugur hopes to open up to 300 concessions of its major clothing brands - such as Karen Millen, Jane Norman and Principles in German department stores over the next three to five years. The company has formed a joint venture, Arctic, with a licensing partner to help it secure the sites and strike deals with German retailers.

Gunnar Sigurdsson, Baugur's chief executive, said the company has been interested in Germany "for a while". "The idea is that through Arctic we take our brands and open them in Germany. We could also possibly open concessions for brands outside the Baugur group," said Sigurdsson. Sigurdsson said that Baugur is looking at replicating the model in India. "We are surveying the scene," he said. Baugur is one of several retailers looking to capitalise on Germany's solid economy. The Bundesbank expects growth in the eurozone's largest economy to be 2.5 per cent this year and just under 2 per cent next year.

UK mail-order company Boden has recently launched a trial in Germany and will increase the size of its catalogue in the spring and autumn of next year. "There are 80m people in Germany compared to 60-odd million in the UK. But the market for direct in Germany is twice the size of the UK," said Julian Granville, Boden's managing director.