News

London Designer Outlet (LDO) - the major retail and leisure element of Quintain’s  Wembley City regeneration scheme – has confirmed its position as the capital’s first bespoke designer outlet centre - with the announcement that it has successfully registered the LDO name and design creative as a trademark.

LDO – which is being progressed by developer Quintain – will be the first of the ‘next generation’ of outlet centres, and is set to become the ultimate retail, restaurant and entertainment lifestyle destination within easy reach of central London and the South. It is positioned adjacent to two of the most important sporting and entertainment venues in the UK – Wembley Stadium and Wembley Arena. 

The modern brand identity and marketing campaign for LDO uses bold, vibrant, colours and imagery drawing upon London’s fusion of cultures. It is the result of a comprehensive 12-month market research, branding and design process that was led by retail destination marketing strategist Deborah Owen-Ellis Clark on behalf of the Quintain Retail team, working with a number of agencies including: harrison:fraser, Saentys, Leapfrog Research and Javelin. 

Deborah Owen-Ellis Clark explains: “Our starting point for the brand vision of LDO was to talk to as many stakeholders as possible about their perceptions and aspirations for Wembley. The challenge lay in ensuring the brand and marketing campaign would retain the elements that make Wembley unique while capturing the imagination of our target occupiers plus engaging and attracting our two core consumer groups – the local and wider catchment. To achieve this, we created target group profiles based on extensive socio-demographic data and then tested the brand proposition with street surveys and focus groups aligned to the profiles.

“The final brand – Leading the Way – embodies the vibrancy of London’s rich cultural mix, fusing it with a cosmopolitan and stylised vision for the new retail and leisure destination. This bold look and feel communicates the fact that LDO is London’s only bespoke designer outlet centre and is in close proximity to the world class National Stadium and Arena. However, the brand also needs to attract those living and working nearby to ensure they will return with high frequency.”  

“All of our marketing material will reflect and reiterate this brand vision – and communicate the key facts about LDO’s unique leisure and lifestyle offer, transport links, catchment and ultimately, the exceptional commercial proposition.”

LDO’s catchment statistics are impressive – it will be the closest designer outlet centre for 5.8m people – the highest of any in the UK. An estimated 8.4m people live within a 60-minute travel time and there is a total of £3.4bn projected catchment spend. Visitor numbers to Wembley City are currently estimated at 9m a year, and could reach up to 21m per annum. 

The latest LDO lettings are: Frankie & Benny's, handmade burger Co and Jimmy Spice’s. Cineworld has also signed a 25-year lease for the new nine-screen cinema which will seat 1,800 people in total. Work will start on site later in 2011, with the cinema scheduled for completion in 2013 - followed by the main retail element of the LDO later the same year.

ENDS

For more information, please call:

Linda Welch

Halogen

020 7087 3260

Notes to editors

Wembley City is the transformation of 85 acres of land surrounding Wembley Stadium and Arena, creating a landmark mixed-use project, including homes, office and commercial space, a luxury Hilton hotel, an apart-hotel, and the London Designer Outlet. An estimated 7,000 jobs and 4,200 homes are being created as a result of the development, and work on site is well underway.

Quintain Estates and Development plc is a property investment and development company, listed on the London Stock Exchange. Quintain operates through two businesses: Fund Management and Urban Regeneration.

Quintain’s retail portfolio will consist of 2m sq ft of retail parks, individual local needs units, designer outlets and boutique store space across the UK. Many of these will be within the company’s 20m sq ft of major regeneration schemes - Wembley City and Greenwich Peninsula - as well as within its Fund Management business.

LDO key facts: 
• London Designer Outlet is a 350,000 sq ft new designer outlet destination being built in north west London, an integral part of Quintain’s Wembley City scheme
• London Designer Outlet is the only designer retail outlet within the M25, just 21 minutes from the west end, 15 minutes from London Marylebone by train, and one km from the north circular (A406)
• LDO will deliver up to 85 units of retail, up to 15 restaurants and bars, and a brand new nine-screen Cineworld cinema complex seating 1,800 people
• 8.4m people live within a 60-minute drive of LDO, while 782,000 people are within 20 minutes. 5.8m people have LDO as their nearest outlet centre – the largest catchment density for any UK outlet
• It is estimated that Wembley City will receive approximately 21m total visits a year
• LDO has a total of £3.4bn of available catchment spend. Per capita spend is 10% above the national average in the core catchment area. The ABC1 sub-total is 62.5%, over-indexing by 13% above the UK national average