CBRE assisted Romanian retailer Vagabond Studio to expand into the UK market

CBRE Romania has secured for the Romanian retailer Vagabond Studio its first location abroad, in one of the largest shopping centers of London, under the brand “Made by Society”. Vagabond Studio is the first Romanian retailer who enters British market assisted by a real-estate consultant from Romania, following an investment of approx. 800,000 euro.

The store, opened this May, is located in the Eastern part of London, in Westfield Stratford City. This is the largest urban shopping center in UK by land and the 4th-largest shopping center in the country by retail space. “Made by Society” concept store occupies an area of 225 square meters, with a team of 15 sale people.

Since 2014, the company opened 14 stores in shopping centers from Bucharest, Brasov, Cluj-Napoca, Constanta, Iasi, Ploiesti, Sibiu and Timisoara and has reached a team of 300 employees. Its manufacturing facility is based in Botosani, the Romanian hometown of the founding family.

“We are very excited that “Made by society” penetrated new markets and we are proud that a Romanian brand is so successful abroad, as well. Our success is the result of a great team’s hard work, a team that stood up our brand philosophy all the way but is also coming from the appreciation of our buyers, who are not the cause, but the effect of a bold society. Special thanks to CBRE for a very professional assistance in opening our first international shop,” says Darian Vicol, CEO Vagabond Studio.

UK is one of the largest consumer markets of the world, according to the World Bank, and the 3rd retail market in Europe, after Germany and France, in terms of turnover. In 2021, the retail sales in UK were worth over 465 billion British pounds, according to Statista.com. Also, the retail industry consists of over 300,000 separate businesses and over 3 million employees, which represents over 8% of all UK jobs, according to British Retail Consortium (Brc.org.uk). For every pound spent, approximately 12 pence were spent in clothing shops, which is the second reason for spending, after food shops (39 pence).

At the same time, UK is the second largest commercial real estate market in Europe, reaching 1.3 billion British pounds in 2021, according to Statista.com data.