John Lewis is to spend £20m on a revamp of its Glasgow store in the city centre’s Buchanan Galleries as the centrepiece of a £50m plan to refurbish stores this year, with Liverpool’s store also in line for an upgrade this year, alongside Reading, Cambridge and Leicester.
The Glasgow project includes expanding the beauty hall with a fragrance hall and gift emporium. The company said every corner of the 28,000 sq metre store would be upgraded, including a new John Lewis Platter in-house cafe-restaurant and more women’s and men’s fashion labels.
The lower ground floor will be the first to be completed, with a technology and sports floor due to be in place by late September. The store will remain open throughout, with the refurbishment expected to finish early next year.
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The leader of Glasgow city council, Susan Aitken, said: “John Lewis has been one of the city centre’s key shopping attractions for almost 30 years and this huge vote of confidence in Glasgow’s retail sector will, I’m sure, guarantee it continues to be for at least another 30.”
The refurbishment of the Buchanan Galleries’ flagship tenant comes after the shopping centre’s owner, LandSec, won planning permission last year for a major overhaul of the 1990s shopping centre, having ditched proposals to demolish it to build offices in 2024.
LandSec has bought up neighbouring buildings for the renovation, which will create new leisure and dining space, including a food hall, as well as new larger retail spaces on Buchanan Street.
The £50m outlay is the latest phase of the 161-year-old retailer’s programme to spend £800m by 2029 on refurbishing all of its 36 branches.
It has been introducing new brands with cross-generational appeal, including Topshop, Carhartt, Charlotte Tilbury and Waterstones.
Peter Ruis, the managing director of the employee-owned chain, said he was “getting rid of the old stuffy department store and replacing it with something more experiential”.
The investment is part of attempts to seize the initiative in light of rivals Debenhams and Beales disappearing from high streets, while House of Fraser has more than halved in size.
In contrast, sales at John Lewis’s department stores increased by 3% to £4.9bn in the year to 31 January, with underlying profit up 29% to £58m, clearing the way for parent group John Lewis Partnership, which also owns Waitrose, to pay a bonus to staff for the first time in four years.
