SpaceNK Is Closing All U.S. Stores
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SpaceNK is closing its U.S. stores, WWD has confirmed.
The specialty retailer is closing all eight U.S. stores, and will instead focus on its wholesale business in the U.S., which includes partnerships with Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom. The stores will close as leases expire, or will be assigned or sublet, according to a company spokeswoman.
SpaceNK was founded by Nicky Kinnaird in 1993 as a beauty retail concept in London. The chain expanded and was acquired by Manzanita Capital in 2002. Once it came to the U.S. market, SpaceNK opened stores in New York, including on Prince Street and in Williamsburg, in Connecticut and in California, in San Francisco and Brentwood.
The retailer sells premium and niche beauty brands, from Beautyblender and Oribe to Augustinus Bader and Vintner’s Daughter.
“Our premium, full-service, wholesale model has quickly become the largest, fastest-growing and most profitable channel within the SpaceNK U.S. business,” said SpaceNK chief executive officer Andy Lightfoot in a statement to WWD. “We believe this is the right future model for SpaceNK in the U.S. and as a result have embarked on a major refocus and restructure, putting this at the heart of our operation. Over the next three months we will cease trading from all eight of our U.S. freestanding stores and begin a transitional project resulting in a second full-service wholesale business by March 2021. This new, simplified model provides a foundation from which we can invest in growth while leveraging the U.K. infrastructure and expertise to an even greater extent. SpaceNK.com will continue to operate as it does today.”
SpaceNK was said to have hired Goldman Sachs to explore sale options in 2018, but a deal never came to fruition. Sources said SpaceNK’s U.S. retail stores have struggled with profitability.
The spokeswoman said despite each store “making a profitable contribution the store channel didn’t create a sufficient return to justify the time or financial investment required to maintain and grow the channel.”
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