Gdańsk finds an outlet

The Outlet Company is opening its first Fashion House Outlet Center (FHOC) in the north of Poland in a matter of weeks, its second store in Poland. The company's president, Patrick van den Bossche announced that it is going to invest zł.250 million in expanding the Outlet network in Poland.

So far, the Outlet Company has invested zł.256 million in Poland. Van den Bossche wants to double this sum in the next three years. The company intends to open further stores in Poznań, Wrocław, and Szczecin. According to FHOC estimates, in Poland there is still room for only six outlets. Outlets are most popular in the US, where 80 such complexes have been launched. In Europe the number has reached 40.

Outlets typically house stores in which top-brand producers sell their the production surpluses 30-70 percent cheaper than the regular price. The Outlet Company was launched by Flemish developer Liebrecht & Wood. Another big investor in the Outlet chain in Poland is Neinver Polska, the owner of the existing Factory Outlet in Warsaw's Ursus, and another store in Wrocław that the firm has just begun building.

The Fashion House Outlet Center in Gdańsk will occupy 23,088 sqm in total. Some 80 shops on a leased area of 16,371 sqm will sell products by Reebok, Wittchen, Levi's, Nike, Puma, and others. The center is modeled on a fishing village with a 25-meter-high lighthouse. The Gdańsk Outlet was designed in accordance with the Outlet Company's concept of referring to the architecture, history, and atmosphere of the location. For example, the Sosnowiec FHOC, which  was the first investment of the Outlet Company in Poland, takes the form of a Victorian tenement, and a retail center that will be opened in Warsaw next month will look like the city's historic Old Town.