Key location chosen for Aussie store’s new HQ

A RETAIL giant has revealed why it has chosen a ‘dated’ shopping centre in Sutton Coldfield as its base for its UK headquarters and its second biggest store in mainland Britain as its lease deal is confirmed.

- NICK HORNER

Australian home and lifestyle retail giant, Harvey Norman, dubbed the John Lewis from Down Under, is growing its fledgling UK retail to add a fourth shop at the town’s Gracechurch Centre.

The Aussie firm has more than 300 shops worldwide selling furniture, bedding, technology and electrical appliances from its homeland to Malaysia, Singapore, Slovenia, Croatia, New Zealand and the Republic of Ireland. It is now expanding in the UK from two shops in Belfast and its first mainland shop at nearby Merry Hill in Dudley, into the former BHS site at Sutton’s main shopping venue with a 20-year lease.