Malta-founded retail giant Hudson Group has announced the opening of another New Look store locally, this time found on the ground floor at Bay Street Shopping Complex.

The new store replaces UK fast fashion outlet Missguided, which was also operated locally by Hudson while the UK brand fell into administration in June 2022. At the time, WhosWho.mt asked Hudson what plans it had for the defunct Missguided brand and its Bay Street outlet, to which it replied that Hudson already had “a mitigation plan in place”.

Indeed, after New Look’s Sliema outlet closed during the pandemic, and with its Gozo outlet being temporarily closed due to mall refurbishments at Arkadia Gozo, this left Hudson with only its New Look Fgura outlet, up until now.

Therefore, it transpires that the “mitigation plan” it spoke of would be to bring the New Look brand back to the central region of Malta via the Bay Street location, after the opportunity presented itself due to the Missguided brand collapse.

Spanning a retail space of 270 square meters, Malta-founded retail giant Hudson describes the store as “the ultimate destination for feel-good fashion”.

Open between 10am-10pm, the store will host womenswear, 915 (collections for teens), a special denim section as well as accessories and lingerie.

A ‘Sneaker Bar’ will also offer a variety of Nike footwear – a novelty for New Look in Malta, as well as the local market, which is increasingly drawn to the sneaker culture, and a more casual, dressed down look.

Launched in 1969, New Look is the quintessential British high street brand. A leading fast fashion retailer, the brand has now grown into a global brand, with 1,150+ stores worldwide (and an online store serving over 120 countries), 18,000 passionate people behind the scenes, 3.1+ million Facebook fans and three million Instagram followers.

New Look prides itself in dialing into the trends their target customers love when they love them the most.  It seeks to offer accessible styles, perfect fits, great quality fabrics whilst being transparent when operating their business.

“We are thrilled to open yet another New Look store in Malta. Ever since we introduced the brand to Malta in 2010, it has retained its position as the ultimate destination for well-priced fashion and style.

“The new store in the Bay Street Shopping Complex will not only offer great opening hours (10am to 10pm), but also a novel concept – a Sneaker Bar offering the greatest lifestyle shoes from the world’s greatest sport brand NIKE, which we also represent as Hudson,” explained Hudson’s General Country Manager for Malta, Ritianne Grech in a company statement.

Hudson is Malta’s leading fashion and sports retailer with brands such as NIKE, Ted Baker, River Island, New Look, Intersport, Urban Jungle, Urban Bratz, Kiabi, Mango, Tommy Hilfiger, Armani Exchange, Mango and Calvin Klein. It also has its own Malta online store hudsonstore.com, launched in 2020. It is present in Italy through Urban Jungle and BlackBox as well as in Cyprus with Kiabi.

It is also a significant operator in Africa, where it is a distributor and retailer of several leading brands.

In total, Hudson currently manages over 31 stores in Malta and Gozo, and another 30 stores spread across Africa and Southern Europe including Algeria, Morocco, Nigeria, Cyprus and Italy.