Boots’ Fragrance Boutique, Designers @ Debenhams, Søstrene Grene’s UK Surge, NikeSKIMS, Laura Ashley

Five Things Friday UK Edition with Simone Oloman & Alex.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Intro cold open

00:17 Roll credits & setup

00:54 Boots fragrance-only boutique (Broadgate)

01:52 Boots’ beauty play & premium push

03:13 Hand-off

03:26 Designers at Debenhams returns (Kim Cattrall, Ashish)

05:09 High street needs a little “zhuzh”

06:00 Festive trading season set-up (Prime Day → Christmas)

06:46 Søstrene Grene: UK standout performance

08:00 NikeSKIMS: culture × performance

09:45 Brown is back (palette chat)

10:22 Laura Ashley: Lakeside flagship returns

11:08 Wrap: grocery vs. luxury

11:51 Sign-off

REFERENCES

Søstrene Grene results & UK expansion:

This week’s five:

1) Boots’ first fragrance-only boutique at Broadgate, London (opens 23 Oct 2025).

2) Designers at Debenhams returns (AW25) with Ashish; Kim Cattrall fronts the campaign.

3) Søstrene Grene posts record results; UK is the standout growth driver.

4) NikeSKIMS launches as a new women’s brand: performance credibility meets culture.

5) Laura Ashley returns to bricks & mortar: 10,000 sq ft flagship at Lakeside.

References:

Disclosure: Opinions are ours. Not investment advice.

#Retail #UKRetail #FiveThingsFriday #Boots #NikeSKIMS #LauraAshley

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hello, welcome back to five things Friday.
It is Friday. We are going to get this episode
out today. I'm committed to that.
I'm joined by my wonderful Co host Simone and as they say,
let's roll the credits. OK, so as I said, we're going to

(00:28):
jump straight to it. I'm still clapping, I'm still
passionate. Let's start.
I'm going to start with boots inthe UK.
Boots have done, I think Boots have done a phenomenal job of
staying relevant to their customers and understanding the
trends that are coming and more importantly the competitors that
are coming after their business.And so with that, Boots have

(00:50):
decided to launch their first ever fragrance only booty at
Broadgate, Central London on the23rd of October, just in time
for Christmas and the gifting season.
The 2150 square foot space will stock over 400 a niche sense.
I've got to call it sense, including twenty own brand to

(01:13):
boots and I think Boots again, phenomenal job on their own
brand getting it right. I've worked with boots and so
I've spent a lot of time in Nottingham understanding how
much they put it into understanding their customer.
So I reckon there's going to be a couple of little sensation
hits in there. It's a consultantation LED
experience. As we all know, that's what

(01:33):
beauty is about. That's what's made Sephora and
all the other brands and expand.Is Kiko in in?
Is it Kiko in the UK? I can't remember anyone.
In the UK. Beauty is a massive thing,
concierge services, gift wrapping, and it follows the
company's beauty only. You've heard me talk about this
because I absolutely love the Battersea Power Station
development. I think it's a really beautiful

(01:55):
shopping experience and they've got their own beauty or Boots
beauty only store that was the first one there and this is now
going to be the the same or so. But it's also a signal, well,
that boots are now pushing into premium, which I think is
something that's been lacking because they've been there, you
know, everyday brand that you can turn to, but now they want

(02:16):
to sort of push a little bit further and go to that.
So that's my one, Simone. How about we go to you for the
next one? Yes.
Are we going to do dabble? Which one would you like to do?
Nike or the Devin? Designers Debenhams is back, and
as you can see on the video, at the front of this campaign is

(02:36):
the iconic Kim Cattrall AKA Samantha from Sex in the City,
who I have to say I love. I think she's hilarious.
I think it's a really great choice.
But for those that don't know designers at Debenhams, it
originally launched in 1993 and it wasn't really just a range.
It was, I guess, the first retailer to really blur the

(02:58):
lines between designer fashion and High Street shopping, long
before the whole collab culture was even a thing.
So they partnered with names like Henry Holland, which is
what I remember them for Jasper Conran, Matthew Williamson, and
it made designers accessible. And I thought it was interesting
is when you really think about it, I think that Debenhams doing

(03:20):
that set the playbook for collabs like, you know, H&M and
Versace, which was a weird and wonderful collabs.
But now with this this the brandAshish is taking the lead and
you saw on the video there, it'svery.
Sequence you Versace. It's very the month of Sex in

(03:44):
the City. Yeah.
But Dan, Dan Finley, who's the CEO of Debenhams, really served.
I think I've got the core PO. We said designers at Debenhams
was more than a range. It was a retail movement.
Bringing it back isn't just about nostalgia.
It's about reengineering the DNAthat made it iconic for how
people shop and live and dress now.

(04:04):
And I think that the High Streetobviously needs a bit of jouge.
We should get down on the show, you know I can.
I would love to see you interview him.
I would love that. Yeah, he's a he's a good guy.
I saw him say again. So and if you're listening,
yeah, I know Dan. If you he of course he listens.
He knows me. He used to be head of digital at

(04:26):
JD Sports and I saw him last year at NRF, like front row, he
was on a panel talking. So I'd love to see you talk to
him because you're, you are the,you know, the type of shopper
that he wants to bring to Debenhams.
Absolutely. And I I'm really.
Interested delivery partner. Laws, you know, while the
product lands, and I mean, I love that vibrant kind of

(04:48):
product. I think it's not natural.
But yeah, I love what they're trying to achieve.
And yeah, bringing Debenhams really back into the
conversation. So excited to see where that
goes. Fantastic.
This is the the upbeat show, right?
So we're going to keep things upbeat because there's so much
negativity, but it's coming to the season.
It's the golden. I mean, we've got Halloween and
we've got Bonfire Night, but after all of those this

(05:10):
Christmas and there's actually Prime Day next week or the week
after, which statistically globally has become the shopping
event for Christmas. I'm going to try and say this
correctly. Sustra net, grey net, which is
just pronounced. It's Austra net sauce and green.
They're having a phenomenal time.
Let me add them so you can see what I'm chatting about.

(05:31):
There you go. So it's it's Christmas, you
know, you're getting into the season.
They're Danish homeware retailer, a little bit like IKEA
when you go through the stores, but shoppers absolutely love
them and they've had a record year and they've named the UK as
their standout growth driver for2425.

(05:52):
So they saw their profits rise from 31% to 314 million and UK
revenues have jumped 130%. I think this for me signals that
little bit of indulgence that welike that is affordable.
It's affordable indulgence and the UK is lapping it up and
they're going to open another 67stores during the year and I'm

(06:15):
getting invited to to do something.
But anyway, fantastic story going from strength to strength.
Expect to see them in your part of the UK if they're not already
there and their profits are growing year.
And yeah. And remember, this is not
financial advice. Back to you, Simone.
Oh. We've got positive topics today.
I'm liking this. That would be next is speaking

(06:38):
about the Nike and Skims Drop, which happened this week.
I know the out I announced earlier this year.
And when they did, I thought, yeah, very smart.
We've spoken before, Alex, abouthow competitive the athletes are
in sportswear spaces. I think everyone's really
fighting for attention from legacy giants like Nike to more
of the, I guess newer brands like Adenola and Alan.

(06:59):
Even, you know, Lululemon is obviously they're all constantly
fighting for this. Nike, as big as it is, has been
under a lot of pressure to stay relevant, especially with kind
of younger and more, I guess, culturally plugged in audiences.
And This is why I think this club is so interesting.
And Kim Kardashian had said founder and face of Skims had

(07:20):
said it's not about it's not just about sales, it's about how
it's about the cultural impact. And that line really stuck with
me and it made me think who getsthe most out of this?
Is it Nike or is it Skims? Because Nike, that's the
cultural clout. But I think Skims gets the, I
don't know, I guess the performance credibility night

(07:41):
has obviously been around for ages.
But yeah, I thought it was interesting and it just got me
thinking, who who do you think comes out stronger from this
Obviously 2 very dominant forces?
Really interesting. So yeah, yeah, I love it.
I think, you know, trying to keep up with Adidas or having
Adidas or Adidas, whichever 1. I think it's, it's really

(08:04):
interesting and more interesting.
Is that brown, which I thought was last year's colour?
Is obviously this year's colour because everything is chocolate
brown or dark brown. Love it.
Really. OK, I'm on trend.
I've got a new suede jacket that's chocolate brown
obviously. So on trend Brown.
Suede is very in. Laura Ashley has officially

(08:28):
returned back to bricks and mortar in a lakeside, a 10,000
square foot flagship. A lake Lakeside that's opened, I
think opened last week actually on the 26th of September and
it's a standalone store in five years.
The site is operated in partnership with Next.
Next traditionally don't fail when they do these types of

(08:48):
brand activations because it wasan acquisition by Marquee Brands
in January. And so expect to see, as you can
see from their Instagram, a fulldeck or assortment sofa shop and
a paint leaning hard into labelsinteriors DNA, right?
So they're they're sticking to the interiors.
I don't know if there's actuallyfashion here, but anyway,
they've come back. You can go down to lakeside to

(09:10):
see them. Hopefully we bought you a little
bit of sugar in a sea of bitterness.
That's the the news stories. And also, I guess to to sort of
highlight what we're also seeingis this separation between
retailers like Tesco's posting profit uplifts, they're going to
be making more money where in luxury and Selfridges they're

(09:31):
posting down grading their forecast.
So again, it's really interesting space to watch ever,
ever fast and ever moving changing.
Simone, any final thoughts? Will we say goodbye for the
week? It's been a very. +1 this week.
I'm loving it and it's been no doom and gloom.
You're. Feeling good, right?
You're going to leave well that positivity.

(09:56):
So thank you so much for being with us and sharing your
thoughts, and I look forward to seeing you next week.
See you next. Week.