John Lewis is bringing Topshop back to Britain’s high streets as it seeks to win over more younger shoppers.
The department store said it will be launching Topshop in 32 of its shops from next February, while menswear brand Topman will be rolled out in six locations. Topshop bosses said the deal would “put the brands back in front of customers nationwide”.
Topshop was once a stalwart of Britain’s high streets and the jewel in the crown of billionaire Sir Philip Green’s retail empire Arcadia.
At its height, the brand had 300 stores across the UK including a flagship shop on Oxford Circus, as well as concessions in stores including Selfridges. It was known for its popular collaborations with celebrities such as Kate Moss.
However, Topshop disappeared from high streets after the unravelling of Sir Philip’s empire. Online fast fashion giant Asos bought Topshop out of administration in 2021 following Arcadia’s collapse but only sold its clothes online.
Anders Holch Povlsen – the Danish tycoon behind brands including Jack & Jones – took control of Topshop last year, with Asos maintaining a minority share.
At the time, the company suggested it was considering returning to the high street and last month Topshop launched in luxury London store Liberty. The tie-up with John Lewis will take Topshop to high streets outside London.
Peter Ruis, the managing director of the department store, said the launch would help attract new generations of shoppers. Typically, John Lewis has been popular with older generations whereas Topshop’s main customers are teens and women in their 20s.
Mr Ruis said young customers were already shopping in its beauty halls, but the Topshop deal would help lure them into other departments and “bring more of that family day out”.
He said Topshop was a “multi-generational brand” which was not only popular with “Millennials that grew up with them” but also younger people who were coming to the label through the “90s TikTok revival”.
Mr Ruis added: “We’ll be driving customers who maybe don’t always come through the door across all those critical age groups. I think it will bring new customers in, but we’ve got a lot of them coming already. It will probably push them from the beauty hall into the fashion department.”
The launch forms part of plans to freshen up John Lewis department stores after years of underinvestment.
The partnership is investing £800m into its shops, including renovating parts of the stores and introducing new restaurants. It also pushed through changes in staff hours so that it could have more people on the shop floor when customers needed them.
Mr Ruis said: “We had too many people back of house, in the wrong parts of the store, and not working on the days when customers were actually in the business.”
He shrugged off suggestions that the concept of a department store was outdated. Mr Ruis said: “We are Britain’s department store. There’s always going to be room for a great department store, you could argue.
“You maybe can’t survive as five or six department stores in the country, but as Britain’s best and biggest national department store, there’s definitely room for us.”