Lush Global Property Director Paul Wheatley has revealed that the key to the natural cosmetics retailer’s success has been a move towards larger store formats, enabling a greater focus on experiential retail concepts, according to a report published by WWD.

Indeed, Wheatley has attributed the ethical beauty brand’s transformation from pre-tax loss to turning a profit in the space of the last three years by bucking the prevailing trend towards small format stores and instead seeking out altogether larger spaces – including a 10,000 square foot London flagship.

“The problem was having a proliferation of stores in the 400 to 600 square foot bracket,” Wheatley told WWD. “Relatively cheap to run but the question we had to ask ourselves was whether we were capping the upside because the stores were too small.”

The larger spaces enable Lush to usher in exclusive features and products that are unique to that store to tempt in shoppers, such as a greenhouse stocked with herbs that can be blended into products in the Manchester shop, and a spa in the Oxford Street flagship.

The company is rolling out this new strategy of fewer, but larger stores worldwide, and is said to be planning a 20,000 square foot store in the UK in the near future.