Pop Mart’s Labubu dolls are travelling in smart company (Image: Pop Mart)
A Chinese toy maker is showing London’s upper crust that funny dolls can be turned into serious real estate with a company linked to Hong Kong-listed Pop Mart picking up a mixed-use building in the UK capital, according to market sources who spoke to Mingtiandi.
The maker of the Labubu brand of collectible plush toys has acquired 149-151 Oxford Street for £63 million ($86 million) the sources indicated, confirming earlier reporting by the UK’s Estates Gazette.
Pop Mart, which is led by China’s youngest billionaire Wang Ning, has denied purchasing the the 32,795 square foot (3,047 square metre) property near Soho Square Gardens, with the purchase said to have been made through private Singapore entity.
The seller, Royal London Asset Management Property acknowledged the sale in a statement from Colliers, which along with Savills, represented the seller. Cushman & Wakefield represented the seller, which was not named in the statement.
Pop Mart Goes Posh
Pop Mart, which appears to raised the ire of mainland authorities after The People’s Daily last month criticised sales of “blind box” toys, opened a store on Oxford Street one year ago, with customers queuing up around the block to get a chance at the grinning dolls.
149-151 Oxford St is one of London’s best-known shopping streets (Image: LoopNet)
Royal London Asset Management declined to confirm the identity of the buyer due to confidentiality clauses when reached by Mingtiandi by email, while Pop Mart did not respond to Mingtiandi’s inquiry by the time of publication.
The company is reported to have first considered leasing the 149-151 Oxford Street location, before opting to purchase the property five minutes’ walk from Oxford Circus underground station.
The building has 19,000 square feet of retail space on the basement, ground and first floors with the upper levels of the six-storey structure used for residential with Pop Mart reported to be planning a flagship store in the location.
The building has entrances on both Oxford Street and the intersecting Berwick Street and spans two addresses – 149-151 Oxford Street and 59 Berwick Street. Pop Mart’s £63 million purchase price works out to the equivalent of £1,921 per square foot of saleable area.
Royal London Asset Management, which is a unit of British insurer Royal London Group said it divested the 2014-vintage asset as part of a strategy “to focus on super prime, modern, high-quality retail assets” in central or strategic locations, it said in a release by agent Colliers, which did not name the buyer.
Capitalising on “Labubu Mania”
Pop Mart’s stock price has jumped 171 percent this year to about HK$253 per share, with 38-year-old founder Wang Ning joining the ranks of China’s top ten billionaires for the first time in June with a net worth of $22.7 billion ranking China’s 10th richest according to Forbes.
In recent months, Pop Mart’s quirky elf-like character Labubu series has grown from its home niche in Asia to become a global craze, selling toys in “blind boxes” where buyers cannot know which figurine they are buying until after opening the package.
The toy maker’s international business has grown exponentially, with its overseas revenues surging 375 percent year-on-year in 2024 to RMB 5.1 billion ($710 million), accounting for about 39 percent of the firm’s total revenues.
Hirono, a collectible featuring a child with a permanent mischievous look, is among the popular characters rolled out by Pop Mart, with London enthusiasts lining up well before stores opened for a chance to purchase the popular character on its release in May.
Pop Mart arrived in the UK in 2022 and has now opened nine stores across the country.