25 New Brands Came to the Czech Market Last Year

Despite the coronavirus crisis, this is one brand more than the year before

Although the retail segment is among those affected the most by the coronavirus crisis, this does not show in the number of brands newly incoming to the Czech market.

Whereas 24 new brands came to the country in 2019, in the crisis year 2020 there were 25. This year, the number of newcomer brands could be even higher – some brands postponed opening their shops to 2021 due to the corona crisis.

The global coronavirus crisis has obviously hit the entire world, affecting the high street and major premium shopping centres the most. Still, Prague and the Czech Republic have always been and will remain the most important market for new brands coming to the region.

“Prague, where most newly incoming brands are headed, has historically been a preferred tourist destination for a long time – so we expect this major part of the local purchasing power to return once this is possible again. The customer potential is also strong among the local citizens: their purchasing power is growing and they tend to buy more expensive products,” said Jan Kotrbáček, Partner & Head of CEE Retail Agency team, Cushman & Wakefield.

“The Czech retail market is approaching maturity, which is why more than one half of the newly incoming brands are in the premium and luxury segments. In fact, the retailers note that even though Pařížská Street has lost customers from China and Russia, Czech customers make up for that in part, as they are more affluent than they used to be,” he adds.

Fashion and F&B rule

As has become a tradition, most brands that came to the Czech Republic last year were in the fashion industry, which also saw the greatest changes in terms of arrivals and departures. Eight fashion retailers came to the country, plus two sports clothes retailers, three accessories brands and one premium shoe brand.

Five new brands are from the food and beverage services, and the range of leisure concepts has grown with a family fun park from Russia opening the largest scheme of this type in a shopping centre in the Czech Republic.

The most important newly incoming brands include GAP (USA), which opened several stores through its local partner in our country towards the end of the year. In the F&B segment, the Grom craft ice cream concept as part of Unilever, is a major arrival with a newly opened shop in the upper part of Wenceslas Square.

One noteworthy arrival in the specialized segments is a Cybex shop (in Široká Street connected to Pařížská), which has become the flagship store for Europe offering children’s goods and accessories.

For luxury brands, Saint Laurent from Kering Group deserves a mention. The value segment, which is thriving during the crisis, has grown with the TEDi and Action brands

The most frequent country of origin of the brands newly incoming to the Czech Republic was the USA (eight brands), followed by Italy (six brands).

Czech brands expanded as well, primarily to Slovakia: examples include the Jena Nábytek furniture retailer, Bonami home accessories brand and the Saunia leisure concept. Another Czech brand, Sportisimo, expanded into a shopping centre in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Brands newly incoming to the Czech Republic in 2020:

• Fashion: American Eagle, Bruno Morelli, Dsquared2, Gap, GapKids, Rebel Queen, Saint Laurent
• Sport clothes: Assos, Columbia Sportswear
• Accessories: Nialaya, Sunglass Hut, Swatch
• Shoes: Steve Madden
• Food: Cinnabon, Grom, Salsamenteria, Sharetea, Utepia Tea
• Leisure: Superland
• Furniture: Grand Beds
• Other: Action, Cybex, TEDi, Truefitt & Hill, Roncato