Sovereign Centros has announced the opening of luxury beauty and wellbeing brand Rituals at two of its managed assets: Festival Place in Basingstoke and Merry Hill in the West Midlands.
Dutch retailer Rituals offers a collection of body care, home fragrance and skin care products. Like all UK and IE stores, the Festival Place and Merry Hill units also have refillable products, in-line with the organisation’s B-Corp certification.
At Festival Place, Rituals has opened a 3,300sq ft unit adjacent to EE and opposite MINISO, which recently celebrated one year of trading at the top 25 UK destination. The Merry Hill store has been placed among the destination’s luxury watch and jewellery brands, spanning 2,000sq ft of the former Phase Eight unit, the womenswear retailer having relocated into an upsized unit last year.
Jack Gordon, senior asset manager at Sovereign Centros, commented: “With Rituals now open at Festival Place and Merry Hill, visitors from across the South East and West Midlands have new opportunities to shop their great array of luxury goods, within two of the UK’s leading retail and leisure destinations. Securing a brand like Rituals at both destinations showcases the value we place on partnering with retailers, helping them to achieve their vision and supporting their growth in locations that match their aspirational demographic. They add a unique, luxury shopping environment wherever they are, so it’s fantastic for Festival Place’s and Merry Hill’s visitors to now be able to experience that.”
This news comes as Merry Hill and Festival Place have reported significant performance uplifts over the course of 2023, owing to proactive leasing and asset management. They have both secured sales and footfall increases significantly above UK benchmark figures, and have already added to their tenant mixes in 2024, with the announcement of Harvey Norman having signed at Merry Hill, and the launch of Chopstix at Festival Place.
