LONDON — Demand on the U.K. high street is suffering, but not for Space NK, which grew faster than the market in the pre-holiday period, and which will open or expand 10 to 12 more stores this year.
The retailer, which Ulta Beauty Inc. purchased last year, saw its sales of gifts — especially those priced under 30 pounds — spike as customers purchased a mix of mass and luxury products online and from the 87 stores in city centers, neighborhood high streets, and shopping malls across the country.
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During the holiday period sales rose a record-breaking 26 percent year-on-year. According to Circana, the retailer grew four times faster than the overall market during the period and grabbed nearly 1 percent more market share, year-on-year.
The new Oxford Circus flagship, in part of the former Topshop space, is the brand’s number-one store with sales “significantly” ahead of forecasts, according to Andy Lightfoot, Space NK‘s chief executive officer.
Lightfoot said that for the holiday period the retailer increased the number of gifts priced under 30 pounds, and saw their sales increase by 200 percent year-on-year.
“We’ve really been thinking about the customer and their mindset given all of the negative news about the economy, and everything that’s going on,” said Lightfoot in an interview, adding that customers are value-sensitive nowadays, and are shopping high and low.
“They want to make sure that what they are buying is really going to deliver the payoff that a brand promises to deliver, particularly in the skin care and hair care categories, where we’re seeing amazing innovation,” he said.
Lightfoot added that in color cosmetics people are also willing to pay for quality and innovation, whether that comes in the concentration of a pigment or the lasting effects of a product.
“When people explore new categories, they’re really considering the return on the investment that they’re making. They want to know, ‘Is this going to do more for me than if I go to that lower price point?’” he said.
Customers like cross-shopping, too, buying a Byredo fragrance for 300 pounds and makeup from Rare Beauty, which is an entry price point.
“That’s because they’re both really cool brands that excite people. The very traditional mindset of assuming that because someone spent a lot of money on fragrance, they will spend a lot of money on skin care or makeup is just not the reality” of how people shop, Lightfoot said.
The retailer plans to take its wins — and insights — and apply them to its store expansions and openings for 2026. Lightfoot said Space NK will continue to open, or significantly expand, 10 to 12 stores a year as part of its overarching strategy to meet the customer where they want to shop.
In the first six months, he said Space NK plans to increase the square footage of its stores in Clapham, London, and in Bath. Store expansions have been paying off, with sales ballooning at newly refurbished Space NK units in London’s Covent Garden and Marylebone neighborhoods, and in Glasgow, Scotland; and Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Asked about the new ownership, Lightfoot said that being part of the publicly quoted Ulta Beauty Inc. “has really driven us to think on a much bigger scale, and further into the future. I think the nature of private equity is that you are forced to think fairly short term — and consider that you are always for sale. If the right bidder comes along, then you’re for sale,” he said.
Lightfoot added that the switch to strategic ownership “allows you to think much further in advance and more strategically. It’s been very exciting to have some of those constraints taken away and to be able to think about how we build this business, not over a three-year time horizon, but over a 10-year time scale, looking at what sort of investments we want to make, the structures we need to put in place, and the expertise we need to bring in. Ulta have been incredibly respectful to us and as eager to learn from us as they are to teach us and coach us on the journey.”
