COMPLETELY RETAIL: Metro Bank, which opened its first branch in Holborn, WC1, in 2010, is still firmly on the expansion trail.
Calum Ewing, Metro Bank’s head of property, said the company was looking for 200 sites by 2010. “We are now at 37 stores and our intention is to build up to 200 around London and the South East in the next five years.”
However, Ewing confirmed Metro Bank will look outside that area: “We will go around the country, and we are looking at Bristol, Bath, Southampton, and Portsmouth.” But, Ewing wants the 3,500-4,000 sq ft sites to be in town centres, rather than shopping centres.
“We see shopping centres from a leisure point of view… and we don’t believe we are part of that leisure mix.”
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