Marabella's Boutique opening in Waterlooville this weekend stocking baby, children and women's clothing
A popular and well-established children’s clothing store is moving location and opening its new shop in Waterlooville this weekend.
Marabella’s Boutique traded in Cascades Shopping Centre for ten years but it is now moving to Waterlooville. The Portsmouth store closed in January and will now be re-opening in Wellington Way, Waterlooville, with the owners attracted to the regeneration that is taking place in the town.
Lizanne Mcleod, of Cowplain, who runs the business with her mum Melanie Smith, jumped at the chance to move to the area after after finding the rise in rental costs in Portsmouth did not represent value for the footfall on offer.
She said: “The decline of Cascades, or the decline of the high street, was a factor as there was not enough footfall. Waterlooville is undergoing regeneration and there is a bit of a buzz about the town now.
“It is nice to see what they are doing with the area because a lot of shopping centres are left to it but it’s good to see a council regenerating a shopping centre which is the heart of the community. It’s something we wanted to be a part of.”
Lizanne added: “It is also great that there is two play areas nearby in Mini Town and Babyccinos and it meant it tied in nicely with our target audience.”
While the new shop will still stocked children's clothing, they have also made some changes to fill a need that has been cried out for by Waterlooville locals.
Lizanne said: “In Cascades we were solely childrenswear and we did designer clothing. We are changing it slightly at the new shop so we will still be stocking clothes from new-born to 8 years old, but we will also be stocking ladies clothing.
“On the Waterlooville forums we saw that there was a lot of comments with people saying there was nowhere to get woman's clothing in the town. I moved to the area four years ago and it is true there isn't anywhere local to get clothes so we thought it was a good opportunity to fill that gap in the market.”
Another change in the store will be a shift in emphasis to more affordable items. Lizanne said: “What we are really focussed on is being reasonably priced. We have come away from some of the things we have done in the past and focussed on reasonably priced clothing. Life at the moment is tough for people expenses wise so we want to make it affordable.”
Marabella’s Boutique opens in Wellington Way, Waterlooville, on Saturday, April 12 at 9.30am, closing at 4.30pm.