For football fans, a trip to Wembley is generally the final stage of a journey. Roger Wade hopes that the stadium will be the starting point for a nationwide adventure. Boxpark, the “pop-up” retail centre company that he founded in 2011, is planning to add 14 more of its sites, which are built out of shipping containers, to extend its reach beyond its existing locations in London’s Shoreditch and Croydon. The first is due to open on Wembley Way next year. Then it will expand to Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool and Cardiff. Wembley, he says, “is a really big deal for us, the site is internationally renowned. There’s room for a couple more sites in London but the balance will be outside the capital.”
Boxpark founder Roger Wade is planning to add 14 retail sites across the UK, including in Cardiff, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield. Boxpark's shipping container shops were originally intended as a temporary outlet for independent fashion brands, however, after they were pressured by their high street retail stockists not to do deals with Boxpark, Wade shifted his focus to offering food and drink, cashing in on the new popularity of street food.