“People Make Glasgow,” says the famous strapline on the Met Tower in the city centre overlooking George’s Square. Glasgow’s fashion-conscious consumers and diverse demographics have certainly helped the city build a vibrant retail offering full of established brands and premium independents.
The city centre is bustling with families and tourists when Drapers visits in September, despite a drizzle of rain kicking off the week. From buzzy Buchanan Street – the UK’s second-busiest shopping thoroughfare after London’s Oxford Street – and the family-friendly St Enoch Centre in the heart of the city to out-of-town Silverburn and Braehead shopping centres and Glasgow Fort retail park, the fashion retail spotlight is very much on Glasgow.
The city has enjoyed the highest number of fashion multiple openings outside of London in the year to September 2023 exclusive research compiled by Local Data Company (LDC) for Drapers reveals. The list of 26 new stores that have thrown open their doors include Flannels, Ted Baker, Mango and Oliver Bonas. Next and Uniqlo have new openings planned for the months ahead.
Oliver Bonas, Gordon Street
Regeneration is in the air as Glasgow City Council plans to double the population of the city centre to 40,000 by 2035 by improving town-centre housing. One of the main elements of this strategy is to revitalise the Argyle, Buchanan and Sauchiehall areas – which have been dubbed as the “Golden Z”. This will help Glasgow city centre to rely less on office workers to boost trade. However, retailers tell Drapers that that the vision needs to be implemented quickly with consistent investment for the city centre if it is to maintain its prime position.
Glasgow’s retail properties received around £450m of private investment in 2022, hitting an eight-year high. Property analytics firm CoStar suggests the increase was driven by strong appetite for warehousing, retail parks and prime high streets.
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| Glasgow’s main retail locations | Size | Key retailers | Location |
| Buchanan Street | 0.5 miles | Castore, The White Company, JD Sports | City centre |
| St Enoch Centre | 750,000 sq ft | Superdry, H&M | City centre |
| Buchanan Galleries | 600,000 sq ft | Mango, Phase Eight, Trespass | City centre |
| Silverburn shopping centre | 1.5 million sq ft | Next, Zara, Next | Out of town |
| Braehead shopping centre | 1 million sq ft | Primark, Flannels, Quiz | Out of town |
| Glasgow Fort retail park | 510,000 sq ft | Footasylum, Marks & Spencer, Schuh | Out of town |
Retailers and property experts say Glasgow’s high footfall and fashion-forward population have encouraged clothing companies to invest in its retail scene, while rebased rents and reduced business rates open up opportunities for smaller brands and independent retailers, while still pulling in the big players.
In September, Oliver Bonas opened a 4,500 sq ft store on Gordon Street. Next is to set to open a new 28,000 sq ft flagship store on Argyle Street at the St Enoch shopping centre later this year, its sixth store in the city.
In out-of-town locations, White Stuff opened a 1,965 sq ft store in Glasgow’s Silverburn in May – the retailer’s first standalone store in the city – while Primark plans to open a 33,000 sq ft store in Glasgow Fort by early 2025, which will be its ninth in the area.
Silverburn shopping centre. Lucy Knott Photography
The city’s large catchment area, fashion-forward consumers and great transport links are said to be driving forces for the raft of new store openings in the city.
Oliver Tress, founder and managing director of Oliver Bonas, which has three shops in the city, says Glasgow has a dynamic retail environment with “unique blend of culture, thriving economy and diverse demographic”.
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Many regard Glasgow as Scotland’s shopping capital, says Primark UK retail director Kari Rodgers: “The combination of a large student population, a high number of tourists, as well as more housing being built in the city, means there is strong demand for great-value clothing and homeware, which we are well placed to meet.”
Sheraz Ramzan, chief commercial officer at womenswear brand Quiz, which has its headquarters in Glasgow, says the city benefits from good transport connections: “Compared with somewhere like Edinburgh, it’s quite difficult to get to the centre because you need to take lots of small roads, Glasgow has the M8 that cuts right through the city.
“It’s also easy for anybody travelling through Scotland to stop at any of the key shopping centres because of the transport links.”
Source: Local Data Company
James Godfrey, partner at property agency Culverwell in Scotland, says: “What makes Glasgow so important is that it’s got a big catchment of population, so you’ve got a huge amount of people living in and around the city, and it has always been known for its fashion-conscious customers, who are very keen on individual brands.”
Terry McDonald, co-founder of footwear independent Exceed on Ingram Street, says “Glaswegians are more likely to spend their last penny on something fashionable and exclusive”, compared with Edinburgh, where people put more of their income into savings. Indeed, CACI’s analysis of the UK’s top six retail footprints in the UK, places Glasgow second only the London’s West End in terms of potential retail spending.
| Top six UK retail footprint locations | Total spend potential | Total catchment population |
| London’s West End | £4.59bn | 16,779,645 |
| Glasgow | £1.38bn | 2,717,574 |
| Manchester | £1.2bn | 4,529,520 |
| Edinburgh | £1.03bn | 1,499,313 |
| Liverpool | £1.065bn | 2,630,999 |
| Leeds | £1.23bn | 3,520,590 |
Source: CACI
James Debenham, principal consultant at CACI, adds that Glasgow’s retail scene has “something for everyone”: “[In Glasgow,] the mix of retailers on the luxury to budget scale is much more evenly spread than, say, Manchester, which is more skewed towards the premium and luxury brands, or Liverpool, which has a higher proportion of budget and value.
“It also has a much higher mix of independent retailers [at 31%] – it is third only to London’s West End [at 41%] and Edinburgh [at 40%] in this regard. All this gives Glasgow a sense of having ‘something for everyone’.”
| Top six UK retail footprint locations – retail breakdown | Budget | Value | Mass market | Accessible premium | Premium | Luxury | Independents |
| London’s West End | 0% | 6% | 28% | 24% | 23% | 20% | 41% |
| Glasgow | 4% | 16% | 38% | 23% | 16% | 3% | 31% |
| Manchester | 2% | 13% | 40% | 24% | 9% | 12% | 20% |
| Edinburgh | 2% | 10% | 38% | 22% | 21% | 8% | 40% |
| Liverpool | 10% | 17% | 39% | 17% | 14% | 4% | 25% |
| Leeds | 4% | 14% | 35% | 22% | 20% | 6% | 22% |
A fall in business rates and rents have also made it more affordable for retailers to set up shop. Following a revaluation of business rates in April this year, which updates rateable values from 2017, the bills for retail shops across Scotland have fallen by nearly 10%.
Retail units inside Glasgow city centre’s St Enoch Centre have enjoyed an average 42% reduction in business rates bills, while Buchanan Street has recorded a 10% drop, research by property firm Colliers International shows. In out-of-town shopping centres, business rates on average fell by 55% in Braehead and by 35% in Silverburn.
Glasgow retail rents have also been rebased at more affordable levels to combat rising vacancy rates and falling footfall during the pandemic, as have other major cities across the UK.
On Glasgow’s prime retail location Buchanan Street, zone A rents have increased to £250/sq ft this year, from £170 during the height of the pandemic, but remains lower than the pre-Covid level of £280-£300, says Ross Wilkie, director at Colliers International in Glasgow.
“A lot of retailers took advantage of that to acquire units that perhaps pre-pandemic were not affordable such as Castore and Rituals [both of which opened on Buchanan Street in August 2021].”
Landlords are also more open to lease to independents after the pandemic as they attempt to fill empty shops and attract younger customers.
“Shopping centres are trying to reach out to a younger demographic,” says Matt Elgey, senior asset manager at Sovereign Centros, which manages St Enoch shopping centre.
“Increased vacancy rates in shopping centres all over the country has meant that landlords do need to improve their tenant mix because the reliance on the big national names has not helped with [retailers such as] Debenhams falling by the wayside.”
St Enoch shipping centre
John Menzies, director at property agent Savills in Glasgow, says the city has been attracting emerging independents including trainer resellers Exceed, KershKicks and Hylux, all of which opened on premium shopping area Ingram Street, home to luxury retailers such as End and Cruise, over the past two years.
“When we market a property in Glasgow’s central quirky locations, we get a lot of enquiries from entrepreneurial independent brands either local to Scotland or youthful UK brands that want to look at Glasgow, from sneaker resellers to vintage retailers,” he says, “They can’t afford to go on Buchanan Street but they would look at surrounding areas such as Ingram Street, Royal Exchange Square and Gordon Street.”
However, despite a raft of activities in the city, Glasgow city centre has struggled to recover pre-pandemic footfall amid a slow return of city workers, with some suggesting that customers are favouring out-of-town locations instead. Over a six-month period to end of August this year, footfall in Glasgow city centre was down 12.9% compared with the same period in 2019. This is above the UK average of 14.5% but behind some other city centres such as Manchester (-4.8%) and Liverpool (-9.7%).
“Glasgow city centre does feel a bit run-down and tired and retailers in the city centre are perhaps losing to places like Silverburn,” says Leslie Docherty, owner of menswear independent Fat Buddha on Queen Street. “We used to close late on Thursday at 8pm [rather than 6pm] but we stopped it just before the pandemic as there wasn’t much night economy in the city centre any more. The city still has a lot going for it but it needs investment.”
White Stuff opened in Silverburn shopping centre in May
Others cited the end of free Sunday parking in Glasgow city centre in 2019 and the introduction of Low Emission Zone (LEZ), which aims to reduce pollution in roughly a square mile of Glasgow’s city centre, in June 2023 as factors that have affected footfall and sales.
In a bid to revive Glasgow’s central shopping district, the council approved its “Golden Z” redevelopment plans on 31 August, encompassing Argyle, Buchanan and Sauchiehall streets. Set to take place between 2024 and 2030, the regeneration is aimed to encourage a more diverse mix of uses in the city centre, including new residential accommodation development and supporting the repurposing of vacant commercial properties.
Scottish retail vacancy rates have risen to 15.9% in second quarter of 2023 – 0.2 percentage points higher than the same period in 2022, the Scottish Retail Consortium and Local Data Company’s Vacancy Monitor shows.
A council spokesperson said: “The Golden Z project was driven by the need to support the retail sector and meet its evolving needs, as well as addressing post-pandemic issues, such as tackling the blight of vacancies, to improve the quality and attractiveness of the area as a place. Driving up future footfall was a key aim.”
“We want people to work, live, play and shop in the city centre so we feel positive about the redevelopment plans,” explains Katie Moody, centre director of city centre shopping centre Princes Square, “A new Virgin hotel opened in Glasgow in August and Scotland’s first Soho House [global private members club] opens in 2024, which are great for the city and we would love to see more investment in the city centre.”
Quiz’s Ramzan agrees that the regeneration is good news for the city: “There is a big drive to boost the residential capacity within the city centre and to increase more pedestrian-friendly areas so there is a lot of regeneration happening. I think the council does need to move a bit quicker to meet the target but it’s a positive move.”
Culverwell’s Godfrey says: “It’s an exciting time ahead, Landsec is developing its masterplan for [city centre shopping centre] Buchanan Galleries [into a £850m mixed-use neighbourhood], along with the Golden Z vision, I think the future for Glasgow is bright but it will take time and a lot of investment.”
With a plethora of fashion-conscious consumers as well as exciting independents and retail giants entering the market, Glasgow will continue to be an important location for expansion. A variety of shopping neighbourhoods cater for all consumer needs – from high streets to out-of-town shopping centres to retail parks.
However, the local authority must move quickly to revive the city centre into a more modern and vibrant neighbourhood to attract fashion businesses to keep investing into the city.
Glasgow fashion retail openings in the 12 months to 1 September 2023
| Retailer | Location | Type of opening |
| Adidas | Kingsgate Retail Park | Opening |
| Ann Summers | Buchanan Galleries Shopping Centre | Opening |
| BadRhino | East Kilbride Shopping Centre | Concession in Yours |
| Blue Inc | East Kilbride Shopping Centre | Concession in Leading Labels |
| Dr Martens | Buchanan Street | Relocation |
| Flannels | Braehead Shopping Centre | Opening |
| H&M | Braehead Shopping Centre | Relocation |
| Leading Labels | East Kilbride Shopping Centre | Opening |
| Lids | Braehead Shopping Centre | Opening |
| Mango | Glasgow Fort Shopping Park | Opening |
| Oliver Bonas | Byres Road | Refurbishment |
| Pep&Co | Crown Street Retail Park | Concession in Poundland |
| Quiz | Hydepark Street | Opening |
| Runners Need | West End Retail Park | Concession in Cotsworld Outdoors |
| Sports Direct | Braehead Shopping Centre | Re-opening (3 x bigger) |
| Suit Direct | Braehead Shopping Centre | Opening |
| Sunglass Hut | Silverburn | Opening |
| Sweaty Betty | Princes Square | Relocation to bigger store |
| Ted Baker | Buchanan Galleries Shopping Centre | Opening |
| James Pringle Weavers | Buchanan Street | Opening |
| Tommy Hilfiger | Silverburn | Opening |
| Trespass | The Forge Shopping Centre | Opening |
| Victoria’s Secret | Silverburn | Opening |
| White Stuff | Argyle Street | Concession in Marks & Spencer |
| White Stuff | Silverburn | Opening |
Source: Local Data Company