Harper Dennis Hobbs will look to secure 25 locations in the UK throughout 2022. Initially focusing on London, the team will work closely with Blank Street to find spaces between 200 and 800 sq ft across the capital.
Blank Street is a small-format specialty coffee brand with 30 sites in New York. Through strategic locations and user-friendly mobile ordering, Blank Street is reinventing hyperlocal commerce to deliver high-quality products at a lower price. Following new investment and funding in 2021, Blank Street is targeting 150+ sites globally in 2022.
Harper Dennis Hobbs has a rich history of introducing and establishing retail and leisure brands into new markets. As a subsidiary of Newmark Group, Inc., Harper Dennis Hobbs has further cemented its relationships and connections with US-based retail and leisure operators.
James Ebel, CEO of Harper Dennis Hobbs commented:
“Blank Street has a unique offering that we are confident will prove very popular with UK consumers. We are excited to work closely with them over the coming months to find those initial locations to launch the brand into the UK market.
“We have seen significant interest in recent weeks from a number of US-brands targeting the UK for expansion over the next 12-months. This is a really encouraging sign for the UK, as both the leisure and retail sectors look to build upon the recovery and grow as we come out of the pandemic.”
Ignacio Llado, UK Managing Director at Blank Street, added:
“We are really excited to be bringing our quality espresso to London. The coffee shop market in the UK has recovered to £4.4 billion in revenue, bringing the number of shops back to pre-pandemic levels, so it’s really the perfect time for us to enter the UK market and join the vibrant coffee culture here.
“We have ambitious plans to make London our second-biggest city behind New York, so we can’t wait to open our first shop later on in June. We plan to quickly follow this up with a number of ideal locations in key neighbourhoods across London.”