What: Next is opening its largest store at Bluewater as a multi-brand flagship combining fashion, home, beauty, and foodservice.

Why it is important: This move reflects the growing importance of large-format, multi-brand stores as retailers seek to make physical retail more experiential and productive.

Next is preparing to open its first multi-brand concept store at Bluewater later this month, creating the largest store in its portfolio. The flagship will occupy the former House of Fraser unit, which has been vacant since 2024, and will span 132,000 sq ft, with more than 83,000 sq ft of trading space. The store will bring together Next ranges with a wider mix of portfolio and third-party labels across fashion, childrenswear, and home. Brands will include Ted Baker, Seraphine, Gap, Joules Kids, Small Saints, Lipsy, Love & Roses, Laura Ashley, Rockett St George, and Made. The site will also include Costa and Bath & Body Works, the latter with its own entrance. For Bluewater, the opening is a landmark because it is the centre’s first new anchor store since it launched in 1999. For Next, it builds on recent concession trials, including FatFace at Lakeside, and signals a broader push to use large stores as curated multi-brand destinations.

IADS Notes: Next’s Bluewater flagship reinforces the accelerating shift toward large-format, multi-brand retail as a way to make physical stores more productive and strategically differentiated. The move sits alongside Next’s reported interest in Harvey Nichols in July 2026, which points to a broader ambition to manage a more sophisticated brand portfolio and potentially move further into department-store territory. It also echoes Frasers Group’s property-led expansion in May 2026, where control of retail destinations supports multi-brand ecosystems and stronger command of the customer environment. The reuse of Bluewater’s former House of Fraser unit closely aligns with Westfield’s adaptive redevelopment of a historic department-store site in September 2025, showing how landlords and retailers are turning vacant anchor space into more flexible destinations. Meanwhile, WWD’s January 2026 coverage of refreshed UK flagship formats and Retail Gazette’s August 2025 report on John Lewis’s expanded brand curation both underline the same priority: stores must combine stronger assortments, experiences, and cross-category appeal to justify customer visits.

Next to open multi-brand concept flagship in Bluewater