Upmarket furniture and homewares retailer Heal's has identified up to 12 UK cities capable of supporting stores, as it considers roll-out beyond its Southeast stamping ground.
Heal's will open its first regional outlet in Manchester on July 24 and chief executive Colin Pilgrim is confident of transplanting success.
Pilgrim said: 'We are quite convinced we can succeed in the North and are looking at Glasgow and Leeds. Manchester will tell us whether or not any adjustments need to be made to the format.'
Pilgrim said expansion plans had been curtailed by the difficulty in finding suitably sized sites.
'Manchester is our first new store in four years. We have the capability, finance and infrastructure to open on a more regular basis than that, but the sites have not been available,' he said.
Heal's has been owned by Weston family vehicle Wittington Investments since August 2001.
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