John Henric opens first UK store in London

Swedish menswear brand John Henric has opened its first UK store in the City of London as part of a wider retail expansion strategy to drive growth and brand recognition.

The 1,140 square foot store is located at retail and leisure destination One New Change on Cheapside near St. Paul’s in the City of London, allowing the brand to target the business district, as well as tourists with its affordable smart-casual aesthetic.

The space has been designed to reflect the clean, minimalist aesthetic synonymous with Scandinavian design with natural, warm wood tones in a subtle nod to 1950s style to create “a timeless yet contemporary atmosphere”.

“Our stores allow us to showcase the lifestyle of the John Henric brand, leading the way for affordable luxury menswear, everything from shoes to caps,” John Ekström, chief executive of John Henric, told FashionUnited in an interview. “For the London store, we’ve created a new retail interior design, drawing inspiration from a famous hotel in Copenhagen with 1950s interior, offering a minimalistic Scandinavian design.”

Ekström added: “The whole interior is very product-led to showcase the brand, with a bright, youthful feel, our twist on a classic menswear store.”

John Henric sees London as a “stepping stone” to international expansion

The London store marks the brand’s first international store outside of its core Nordic region. Currently, the brand has 11 stores across its home country of Sweden, including Stockholm, Helsingborg, and Gothenburg, as well as three stores in Sweden in Oslo. The brand sees London as a stepping stone for further growth with plans to add additional stores across the capital, as the UK is its second-biggest e-commerce market.

“The goal is to have around two to six stores in London. We want to find the perfect location and be next to the right brands,” adds Ekström. “But if we only have one, that’s fine as well. Our strategy is targeting destination shopping, so, we will move on to other countries and cities, such as in Germany and Paris.

“We’re not a small brand, but we’re not huge. Our focus at the moment is the UK and London. We see this London store as a stepping stone for the world. It is the most important store we’ve ever built, as it could open up Hong Kong, the US, and the rest of the world.”

John Henric targets men with affordable luxury concept

Founded in 2008 in Lund, Sweden, by two friends, Ekström and Nicklas Nordbergh, who is the creative director of the brand, John Henric began by crafting premium accessories for high-end fashion boutiques, launching with gift set boxes featuring ties and cuff links for Father’s Day in its home country. In the past decade, the brand has steadily expanded into a full-service menswear and lifestyle brand, offering formalwear from shirts, trousers and suits alongside casualwear, such as knitwear, T-shirts, loungewear and outerwear, as well as bags, accessories and shoes.

It was launched to tap into a gap in the menswear market for smart casual, affordable yet luxurious accessories and apparel to follow consumers through life, and at the heart of the concept is producing high-quality, genuine craftsmanship at affordable prices.

“One of the significant things in our business model is that we are a producer-to-consumer brand, from factory-to-end consumer, which, for instance, allows us to produce super quality cashmere products, but still make it affordable for the customer, by skipping the middleman and the mark-up,” explains Nordbergh. “Everything we do, centres around the need to offer luxury and premium quality at an affordable price point.”