Bershka adds a new market and lands in Sweden

Madrid – Bershka, Inditex's second-largest chain by business volume, behind only Zara, has added a new market with its launch in Sweden. The Northern European country is where the Spanish multinational's young fashion chain has just begun operations, opening its first store in the capital, Stockholm.

It has taken exactly 40 days to materialise one of the main initiatives for its growth and expansion contemplated by Inditex's management for 2025. Inditex's chief executive officer, Óscar García Maceiras, announced on March 12 that Bershka's upcoming arrival in Sweden was a key strategy for this year. The chain has now confirmed the launch this week, completing it with the opening of Bershka's first store in the Scandinavian country.

With a surface area of 640 square metres, Bershka's new and first store in Sweden is located inside the Westfield Mall of Scandinavia shopping centre in Solna, one of the municipalities within the metropolitan area of Stockholm, the country's capital. Bershka has begun operating in this region from the physical retail channel. It now occupies one of the commercial spaces in this shopping and leisure complex, located door-to-door with the National Arena stadium, home of the Swedish national football team and host to numerous concerts and mass events. The shopping centre has a strategic position within the Swedish capital's metropolitan area. From within it, the young fashion chain can now pit its offerings against a wide list of other prominent fashion operators, which includes brands such as Calvin Klein, G-Star Raw, Gant, Hugo, Intimissimi, Jack&Jones, JD Sports, Levi's, Mango, Michael Kors and Nike.

On this same matter, it is especially noteworthy that the Swedish multinational H&M Group has a prominent presence in the shopping centre. It has points of sale for both H&M and its beauty line H&M Beauty and its homeware line H&M Home, as well as its chain &Other Stories. It is also worth mentioning that Spanish company Inditex already had a remarkable presence within the same shopping centre, from which it had been operating through Massimo Dutti, Pull&Bear and Zara stores. This first Bershka store in the country now joins these establishments.

Featuring Bershka’s three collection lines

Looking in more detail at the particularities of this first Bershka store in Sweden, the 640 square metres of commercial space are spread across the single floor of the establishment, on the first floor of the Solna shopping centre. This exhibition space will be reserved for the exhibition and sale of all three of the young fashion firm's collection lines: Bershka, for girls; BSK, with collections especially aimed at pre-adolescent girls; and Man, with the firm's menswear collections.

Developed under a monolithic-looking volume, formed from the union of the shop's facade, built in a stone finish, and its ceiling, the establishment's design is presented as a large slab of colossal edge, which seems to create the sensation of floating above a void that is reserved for that exhibition surface for the chain's fashion offering. These impressions are enhanced thanks to an interior ceiling that detaches from its perimeter, emphasising the impression of forming a single block with the facade of the commercial premises. This is a sum of gestures that allow the entire space to be stretched to the extreme, thereby causing movements to be redirected from the entrance to the back of the store.

Throughout this entire journey, the firm's customers who visit this first Bershka store in Sweden will be able to discover the chain's different fashion proposals, arranged around the different environments that have been sought to be created inside. This has been achieved thanks to a very interesting construction of the space from the design of the store's perimeter. These limits have been stretched with projections that mark the transition between the different areas reserved for certain collections. These changes are emphasised with the use of the different selection of materials that have been chosen for the store's design. These include woods, ceramics and stone-like and textured concrete-like surfaces.

With these projections marking not only the rhythm of the spatial transition, but also the visual reference points within the store, thanks to the indiscriminate use of both dynamic screens and monomaterial and monochromatic finishes in wood, mint green and bright grey, the spatial progression of the space ends up leading to that final area of the store, where the till and fitting room area has been arranged. These are next to an area reserved for the exhibition and sale of the chain's beauty offering. With respect to the tills, their design has been conceived in the form of a self-referential island, arranging around it both an area of assisted tills and self-checkout tills, all in front of a dynamic mural built entirely from screens, with the sole exception of one side that has been reserved for the installation of a point for the collection and return of online orders. This space ends up bringing symmetry to this entire till area, contrasting with the void that is generated in that back part of the store with the access area to the fitting rooms that have been installed behind that mural composed of screens.

“The concept of the store has sought to unify the space through a unique ceiling that, separating from the perimeter, gives us a sensation of lightness and focuses our gaze on the important points of the store”, which have been emphasised “with specific elements of colour, or changes of direction in the perimeter furniture that help to understand the change of collections”, Bershka said in a statement. To that end, “at an architectural level, the facade has been worked on as a tectonic element generated by vertical stone slats, which due to their repetition and change of direction” generate “a great visual impact”. This surface “is directly related to the horizontal plane generated by the ceiling and the lighting of the store, forcing us to enter and walk through the store to the end”.

Growth towards new markets, for 2025

With this opening, and following on from what has already been highlighted, Inditex, Bershka's parent company, is making a final advance on its main growth strategies and initiatives contemplated for this financial year of 2025. For this financial year, beyond Bershka's entry into Sweden, the young fashion chain is also expected to arrive in Denmark for the first time. Massimo Dutti, its ‘premium’ fashion chain, is also expected to open in this new market in 2025. The strategies on the opening of new markets conceived for this year by Inditex are completed with the imminent arrival of Stradivarius in Austria and Oysho in the Netherlands and Germany, as well as with those of all the main fashion chains of the Spanish multinational in Iraq. This is a country in which Inditex will be opening operations for the first time, with the opening of its first points of sale in the country, from the Iraq Mall shopping centre in Baghdad.