Timberland and The North Face To Open in Guildford High Street

Published on: 17 Sep, 2014
Updated on: 1 Jul, 2019

Constitutional Hall, 170 High Street, Guildford when occupied by the furniture business Dwell.

Timberland, and its stable mate The North Face, are to open a store at the top of Guildford High Street. It will be located in the Constitutional Hall, currently being refitted for their arrival.

The opening date for the store in Guildford has not yet been confirmed, but it is expected to open towards the end of this month (September 2014).

Timberland’s revenue in 2010 totalled $1.4 billion. 52 per cent of their business is outside the USA; 29 per cent is clothing and accessories the remainder being footwear. They have 5,600 employees world-wide. The North Face has 19 UK stores has its roots in San Francisco.

The VF Corporation, owners of The North Face and Wrangler brands amongst 13 others, bought Timberland in 2011 for $2 billion. The VF CEO’s stated intention, at the time of the acquisition, was to expand the Timberland business in Europe, Asia and South America and expand their product range for women.

In the US, Timberland regularly features in lists of the best 100 companies to work for. With a policy of transparency, they disclose the names and locations of all their contract factories worldwide. The first Timberland shop in the UK opened in New Bond Street London in 1990.

The Schwartz family, creators of the Timberland brand, introduced injection-moulding to the footwear industry. This allows soles to be fused to leather uppers without stitching producing waterproof footwear.

Their new premises, Constitutional Hall, a Grade II listed building, has an interesting history. It was originally built as a venue for political meetings, the stage area and gallery is still identifiable. It then became Guildford’s first cinema, and later, until 2003, Thorp’s bookshop.

An attempt to purchase the hall to be used as a cinema club, an idea that had popular support, failed when the proposer was outbid at auction when the hall sold for £1.23 million. It was resold a short time later for £2.1 million.

Most recently it was a furniture store, Dwell, the second time a furniture retail business had been tried there.

See also: Constitutional Hall to be Resold After Just 15 Months – Expected Profit £ .8m

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