JD Sports to open second store in Westfield Stratford

Westfield has confirmed that JD Sports will be expanding its presence within its Stratford City shopping centre, as the sportswear brand takes over the former Topshop unit to open a second store.

JD Sports has signed a ten-year lease on the 31,000 square foot unit, as the sportswear brand looks to expand its presence due to “high performance”.

The second store will more than quadruple the space currently occupied by the brand at the centre and is part of the retailer’s plan to “fulfil demand” as they have also renewed the lease on their current space.

Warren Thompson, group head of acquisitions, JD Sports said in a statement: “We are excited to deliver our new flagship store within Westfield Stratford City, one of our key shopping centre locations in the UK. JD will bring the very latest sports fashion to our consumers in our very latest flagship store concept.”

Keith Mabbett, director of leasing UK/Italy at Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, added: “We are thrilled to announce the expansion of JD Sports at Westfield Stratford City as they take over the ex Topshop unit to launch a second store at the centre.

“We have been working closely with JD Sports to identify the best space to meet their growing needs to create a flagship store. The expansion demonstrates the success of JD Sports with high demand for the brand and the increasing trend for retailers stores to create larger footprints at our centres. We have no doubt the new store will be hugely successful with our shoppers.”

Westfield centres have reported an increasing trend from key retailers requiring more space, and since 2018, 38 retailers including JD Sports, the H&M Group, Zara, Adidas and the Abercrombie and Fitch Co. have increased their space by a total of 173,000 square foot across both centres, creating flagship destination stores for their customers.