Next stop Chester for H-Beauty. The successful addition to the Harrods luxury retail brand has chosen the north-western city close to the England-Wales border for its sixth UK beauty-specific store.

It will take over part of the former Debenhams/Browns of Chester building, which has been vacant since May 2021. An opening date has yet to be revealed.
But plans have been approved to transform part of the ground floor of the on Eastgate Street and will extend across a Grade I listed gothic-style building and a Grade II listed Georgian-fronted property. The new store will create 70 jobs.

The design and access statement for the H Beauty plans said: “The building is owned by the Martin Property Group who will be splitting it into smaller units, as a more marketable offer for occupation. The proposed site for H Beauty is part of the overall effort of the owners to revitalise the store, which has remained vacant since the liquidation of the Debenhams business and closure of stores. The proposal for occupation by H Beauty is in response to the client’s brief and forms part of the expansion of the H Beauty brand in the UK”.

The new addition follows five successful store openings in recent years, with the first having been at Lakeside retail centre in Essex, the second at centre:mk in Milton Keynes, the third at St James Quarter in Edinburgh, the fourth at Cribbs Causeway in Bristol and the fifth in Gateshead’s Metrocentre.