Mailbox and Bullring enhance facilities with new retail offering

Birmingham’s retail offering is being enhanced with new openings at two of its most high profile centres.

Bullring owner Hammerson has attracted a string of new independent retailers to the centre’s LinkStreet area, which is a hub for pop-up shops.

The new arrivals include Summer & Silver, a jewellers currently based in the city’s Jewellery Quarter. It will be taking a unit until the end of the year, to promote its selection of contemporary silver jewellery, which features the brand’s own designs alongside others.

Also arriving is Total Black, a London-based luxury urban fashion and accessories brand which is taking one of the units from November until the end of the year. Its unisex fashion offering has been featured in fashion bibles including Vogue and Glamour.

Also looking to capitalise on the festive season is ENESS cosmetics, which is taking a unit for December to sell its natural and vegan cosmetics and toiletries.

Connecting Bullring and Grand Central, LinkStreet benefits from the high levels of footfall generated by both shopping destinations, which are home to department stores John Lewis, Debenhams and Selfridges and dozens of other national retailers.

LinkStreet

LinkStreet underwent significant investment in 2015 with a full refurbishment inspired by some of London’s most popular and innovative retail spaces including Carnaby Street and Seven Dials. The aim was to create a space for contemporary, independent and often local brands to sell their products and promote their brands.

Iain Mitchell, UK Commercial Director, said: “The brand and retailer curation at LinkStreet continues to develop and evolve and the arrival of these new, unique brands will undoubtedly inject further character into this unique space. Our investment in LinkStreet has enabled us to engage our shoppers with a new experience every time they visit, whilst giving independent and smaller retailers a foothold in a prime regional shopping destination.”

At the Mailbox, two of the leading names in homewares and interiors have officially opened their new offering.

Heal’s and MADE.COM are the headline brands at the new 20,000 sq ft Homewares section on Level 1 of the centre.

For Heal’s, the move represents its first foray into the Midlands in its near 200-year history. As well as its furniture, Heal’s is also known for its lighting, decorative accessories, kitchenware and for its work with furniture and lifestyle brands, including Case and Tom Dixon.

The MADE.COM offering also marks the brand’s debut in the Midlands.

Joining them in the new interiors showroom are other homewares, furnishings and accessories retailers including Danish brand BoConcept; Wesley Barrell; Italian smart design experts, Calligaris, famous for giving design lovers the opportunity to create bespoke pieces of stylish, practical furniture since 1923; and The Design Quarter.

The Design Quarter will feature a design-led, curated collection of contemporary furniture, including Content by Conran and SITS, the innovative upholstered hand-made furniture brand.

Simon Samuels, partner at Brockton Capital, joint owner of the Mailbox with Milligan, said: “We know that our customers are interested in high end contemporary furniture and accessories, and Homewares at the Mailbox is a must-visit destination for both aspirational and accessible brands.”

Hamish Mansbridge, CEO at Heal’s said: “This is an incredibly exciting opportunity for Heal’s, giving us a new regional flagship store in the Midlands. This significant move shows the desire of local residents for beautiful, well-made pieces of furniture that will stand the test of time.

“Building on the success of our store at the Redbrick complex in Yorkshire, our Mailbox showroom offers the finest in furniture design from Heal’s, as well as internationally recognised designers and brands. The shop itself is a unique retail space that brings the best of our online offering to Birmingham.”

Annabel Kilner, Commercial Director at MADE.COM added, “Having seen great promise from the MADE.COM Birmingham pop up, we are delighted to open our showroom in the Mailbox. Birmingham is an important city for MADE.COM and we’re keen to see the impact the bigger location will have on sales.”