Victoria's Secret to open in London

The US-based lingerie company is set to cross the Atlantic for the first time to make her debut at various London airports. Victoria's Secret will introduce her beauty line to the European market this November. The company will reveal these plans during a press conference in London this week.

Victoria's Secret has chosen to launch at airports in order to target the travelling consumer market. According to Jill Granoff, COO of Victoria's Secret Beauty, the global travel retail business for beauty is a $5 billion market. Half of this market is concentrated in Europe, whereas the majority of the remainder is spread throughout Asia. Therefore the company has decided to only introduce its beauty range at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted. Granoff stated that the Victoria's Secret brandname had already reached such heights of international recognition, that it would be sufficient to launch the as yet unknown beauty line based on this reputation alone. The current strategy for Europe is to concentrate on the sale of fragrances, alongside the sale of "giftable" merchandising - stuffed dogs, Christmas tree ornaments, gift baskets and colour beauty kits.

Victoria's Secret will be working together exclusively with World Duty Free, a company with a 20% stake in the sale of all fragrances in the UK. According to Mark Riches, managing director of World Duty Free, the two companies have an excellent working relationship and have agreed to launch in mid-November, in time to profit from the lucrative run-up to Christmas.

There are plans to expand the business globally eventually. Victoria's Secret currently has the rights to merchandise its Aura Science brand in the Asian travel retail distribution. Limited Brands and the Japanese Shiseido are joint owners of Aura Science.

Victoria's Secret is not the first company to have chosen an exclusive launch of her products with the help of World Duty Free. Brands like Gucci, Chanel and Mac have paved the way with boutiques at Heathrow.