With retail sales dropping, U.K. fashion chain Top Shop takes a transatlantic risk.

• Philip Green is one of Britain’s wealthiest citizens, with a personal fortune estimated in excess of 3.8 billion pounds. He also owns the women’s retail clothing store Top Shop, among other business ventures.
• After successful runs in the U.K. and across Europe, Green has opened a flagship American Top Shop in SoHo in New York City.
• Green hopes that associating the Top Shop brand with star power (such as supermodel Kate Moss) will help bring the store acceptance in the U.S.

Facts & Figures

• Top Shop’s largest global competitor is H&M, which opened its first store in New York in 2000 and operates 175 stores in the U.S.
• Arcada Group Ltd., of which Green is CEO, made a profit of £164.7 million (in the currency of Great Britain, pounds sterling) and total sales of £1.9 billion in the year ending Aug. 29, 2009. Revenue from Top Shop and Top Man contributed to at least a third of both figures.
• The Top Shop emporium in Soho cost $25 million to prepare.

Best Quote

“Green’s New York store is a statement of his intent that Topshop will become a global fashion brand,” –  Greg Hodge, Analyst at Planet Retail Ltd. (a London-based industry research firm)