Newbie to add to UK stores with debut outside London

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jun 25, 2019

KappAhl’s specialist babywear chain Newbie is to open its first UK stores outside of London just ahead of the autumn season and will generate buzz before that as it sets out on a “national summer tour by bus”.

The first two standalone locations outside of the London catchment area will be in Sheffield and Milton Keynes with the new shops due to open by the end of August.

The summer tour kicked off at the weekend in a nod to the approach taken by KappAhl’s founder in the 1950s when he “went out on the roads when demand for KappAhl was greater than the supply of store premises.”

The first stop for the tour was at the weekend and was, unsurprisingly, Milton Keynes, with the brand building up anticipation ahead of the standalone launch in a couple of months’ as it staged a “classic Swedish Midsummer celebration.”

Other stop-offs will be at markets and festivals in central London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Cornwall, Leeds and Sheffield with additional tour stops flagged on the brand’s webstore.

The Newbie bus will “serve as a mobile, digital and social showroom, where current collections will be displayed and customers can easily click on and order their Newbie favourites and have them delivered the next day,” we’re told. 

During the tour, the brand will also collaborate with “local lifestyle influencers who will talk about everything from sustainable cooking to toddlers' sleeping habits.”