Moleskine to open first UK stores in London

Moleskine notebooks (Alamy)

Italian luxury notebook maker Moleskine has picked Canary Wharf and Covent Garden for its first standalone UK stores.

The brand, which completed a £244 million Milan stock exchange flotation last year, has been opening shops in key business hubs worldwide and the London sites follow launches in New York, Paris, Milan and Beijing.

The Cabot Place shop at Canary Wharf, to open in March, follows strong sales at its recently-opened outlets at Heathrow Airport and in Harrods.

The Covent Garden location, at 40 Kings Street, is close to Burberry Brit, Apple and Covent Garden Market and will open in April.

The group was formed in 1997 to re-create the moleskin notebooks popular with artists and writers like Oscar Wilde and Picasso.

Moleskine could open further London stores and worked with retail property agent Savills to find the locations. The brand, which also sells its products in stores in the UK such as WH Smith, earlier this month won the Brand Recognition Award at the UK-Italy Business Awards 2014.

Moleskine is the latest stationery specialist to market itself as a global luxury brand. London based Smythson recently invested in new stores, designers and collections and now sells everything from handbags and purses to notebooks and paper. It last year opened its first Hong Kong shop.