John Lewis to open stores in the Netherlands

UK retailer John Lewis has unveiled plans to expand its business in Europe by hoping three shops in the Netherlands.

The group has said it will open shop-in shops seven branches of Dutch department store de Bijenkorf, with three stores to open in Rotterdam, Amsterdam and The Hague in spring next year.

Four more shops, in Eindhoven, Maastricht, Utrecht and Amstelveen will follow in the following 12 months, the British high street retailer said.

“We’re delighted to be debuting our first European shop-in-shop and de Bijenkorf is the perfect partner to enable us to bring John Lewis to a new customer base and country”, said group managing director Andy Street.

The stores in the Netherlands will focus on home and lifestyle products rather than the group’s fashion range, it said.

John Lewis has opened 14 shop-in shops across Philippines, South Korea and Singapore and said it planned to expand further abroad, even though in October it said it had “no plans for world domination”.

“Our existing shop-in-shops in Singapore, the Philippines and South Korea have been well received and are trading well,” said Street.

“While we remain committed to our UK physical expansion we hope to announce more international collaborations in 2016.”