Latest Next Beauty & Home Store opens in The Oracle mall

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Dec 3, 2020

​Next is continuing the expansion of its still-new Next Beauty & Home chain with an opening on Thursday at Hammerson’s Reading mall, The Oracle.

The company is planning to open four of the stores across the UK in its initial launch phase, following the concept’s debut in October.

The Reading store stocks a wide variety of skincare, make-up and fragrance labels and hosts premium brands including Chanel, YSL, Bare Minerals, Benefit, Clinique, Estée Lauder, Kiehls, Lancôme, Too Faced, Urban Decay and others. The store also offers a range of premium beauty services.

Next has dived deep into beauty in recent years and currently sells over 250 beauty brands on its webstore, next.co.uk. But it saw the major potential in premium beauty after it launched a successful online collaboration with Fabled by Marie Claire two years ago. The retailer acquired complete control of that venture less than a year later.

The company said the aim of its new chain is to create a premium retail environment for beauty and complement the offer it already carries through its online business. 

But the stores also make the most of its strength in the home and lingerie categories as these are included in the stores’ offer.

Mark Bourgeois, Hammerson MD UK & Ireland, said the landlord is “always looking for opportunities to introduce something innovative and exciting to our destinations, whether that’s a new store concept or brand. This Beauty & Home store will really complement the broader offer at the Oracle, particularly in the run up to Christmas.”

The opening comes as beauty remains one of the key growth categories in the UK, a fact recognised by other big names. Also this year, Harrods opened its H Beauty premium concept store at Lakeside in Essex to take advantage of the same consumer group that Next is targeting with its new chain.