Harvey Nichols To Look Abroad For Development

Harvey Nichols is targeting Istanbul in Turkey and cities in South America and India for new stores. The retailer's chief executive Joseph Wan singled out these areas as being potentially more profitable than developed markets such as Paris and New York.Wan said: "South America, India and Istanbul are all areas of interest for new licensed openings. They each have high populations with rapidly growing proportions of wealthy consumers."

Wan said that in each case Harvey Nichols would only need to attract 1 to 2 per cent of consumers to create a "healthy business." He cited lower distribution, warehouse and employment costs as attractive factors in setting these markets apart from developed territories. Wan also reiterated the potential for Harvey Nichols to bring in a big-name designer to help develop its own-brand line. "Our womenswear is still not a comprehensive collection and is mainly driven by sales of sheepskin garments," he said. May we suggest Tom Ford?