​AllSaints chief eyes further GCC expansion

British fashion retailer AllSaints is plotting the next phase of its regional expansion following its debut last year at Dubai’s Mall of the Emirates.

Speaking to Gulf Business, chief executive William Kim said the company had many “concurrent conversations” on-going regarding its plans for the Middle East.

“We opened in 360 [mall] in Kuwait, we’re looking at Qatar as the next destination and we’re in dialogue currently for further expansion in Dubai for other locations as we speak,” he said.

Kim also revealed he was planning to visit Abu Dhabi to look at further locations.

The retailer made its regional debut at the opening of the Dhs 1bn expansion of Majid Al Futtaim’s Mall of the Emirates after penning a regional partnership with the company’s fashion arm in September 2014.

Kim said AllSaints, which generates 50 per cent of its sales from the British market, could open between 15 and 20 stores in the region as it continues on a global expansion.

It plans to be present in 30 global markets from its current footprint of 16, with no wholesale selling of its collections.

“In the future there is no region why it [the Middle East] couldn’t be 10 per cent of our global sales,” he said.

Lion Capital plucked the retailer, which was established in London in 1994, from the jaws of administration in 2011 for £105m.

Since his appointment from British rival Burberry in 2012, Kim has been tasked with turning the company around through a differentiated brand experience, international expansion and digital sales, with the eventual goal of creating a $1bn business.

The company had revenues of more than £230m in its most recent fiscal year, according to the Lion Capital website.

“We’re due to have an audit committee so I can’t currently release, but we’re very pleased with the progress of the brand in this last fiscal year and it’s not just the top line obviously it’s the profit model in which we try to develop further,” he said.

“I would say we are well on progress to the enterprise value of becoming that $1bn figure,” he added