For Catherine Spindler, president of Europe and Middle East operations at Sephora, a pivotal part of reentering the U.K. after an 18-year-long absence is about rebuilding its cultural relevance and identity in the country.

So what better way than partnering with perhaps the most iconic British retailer of all time, Marks & Spencer?

“The trajectory that we are following since we came back to the market is very promising,” she said in an interview a day after the two retailers revealed their plans to team up with Sephora entering 100 M&S stores, beginning in spring 2027.

“We already opened 18 [stand alone] stores. We’ve got a very strong dynamic, and what we are succeeding very well in is implementing a very strong cultural redevelopment,” she continued. “All of our openings are a success and on top of that, digital is booming too. We will continue to open our stores, but at the same time we wanted to try to find a way to go a step further and go a step faster. We are iconic in beauty, and we wanted to have an iconic partner in the U.K., so connected to the local culture.”

It will be called Sephora at M&S and be located in select M&S stores and on its website. Specialist beauty teams will support customers in stores while marksandspencer.com will offer a broader online range with home delivery and Click & Collect from M&S stores nationwide.

While the retailer is yet to announce the brand lineup, the assortment will heavily depend on how much space it has in each location, which will vary from store to store.

“We will have some stores with 300 square meters and some others with 50 square meters. Nevertheless, the principle is to have the same consistency as much as possible and the same customer experience everywhere in the country,” Spindler said.

The retailer already has a partnership with Kohl’s Corp in the U.S., and prior to that had a presence in 600 JCPenney locations across the country. In Europe, it has a partnership in Spain with supermarket chain El Corte Inglés. It also piloted with Zalando in Germany and Italy, but that ended in 2023 after two years.

“We’ve got the experience we’ve got in the U.S. with Kohl’s, which is a good learning experience. I also have some other learnings because, for instance, we have a partnership in Spain with El Corte Inglés, but it is a little bit different because in El Corte Inglés we are partnering only on one part of the beauty assortment,” Spindler said. “[In the U.K.] we go a step further because we will be in charge of the full beauty category within Marks & Spencer. This is the best way in order to partner and to also bring again the same kind of consistency within the customer domain.”

Sephora returned to the U.K. in 2023 at London’s Westfield mall and has grown to 18 stores across the U.K. at the latest count, across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

This isn’t Sephora’s first foray into the U.K. The retailer opened its first store there in 2000 in Bluewater shopping center in Kent, opening nine doors overall. In 2005, they were shuttered, unable to break through amid intense competition from Boots and others.

“It’s a fantastic and big, big, big beauty market, still with a lot of opportunities because the market is continuously moving and the appetite from the consumer is big. It’s a market that’s quite influenced by U.S. consumers and U.S. trends,” Spindler said of the current market.

“It was a challenge to be back and a challenge to be a challenger in such a big market,” she continued. “Nevertheless, what we observe is that we are successful. We are gaining market share because we are succeeding in bringing something that has so much connection with the local culture. Each of the openings that we implement in the past months, we really build each time something with a taste that is part of the local culture, and this is one of the elements of the success. And of course, how we bring new brands, new trends and strong curation.”

As for what surprised her about the consumer in the U.K. this time around is the sheer appetite for beauty, especially skin care.

“We are observing that in many markets, but in the U.K. it’s a very strong appetite for skin care and the capacity to go from mass market to more premium at the same time in a way. That’s very interesting to see how one consumer has the capacity to shift from one channel,” Spindler added.

Asked if Sephora U.K. could take on mass brands such as E.l.f., which has happened in some markets outside of the U.S. such as Mexico and the Middle East, she noted that she does not consider E.l.f. a mass brand.

“E.l.f. Beauty is bringing something very interesting in terms of value for money and in terms of marketing model too. That’s the reason why they are successful,” she said. “So depending on the market, yes, we will move also with E.l.f., but it’s not really because we are moving on a mass market positioning. It’s more because we are fueling our assortment on what consumers are waiting for, and again they are very good in their marketing model.”

In an ultra competitive market including Boots, Superdrug, Space NK (now owned by Ulta Beauty) and various department stores, she sees skin care and makeup as the greatest opportunity to take market share.

As for the partnership with Marks & Spencer, Paul Archer, chief executive officer of Duel, a brand advocacy platform used by major global brands, told WWD he will be watching how these two customer bases interact with each other as they start rolling out the stores.

“There are customers who religiously go to M&S for the things they consider essentials and Sephora has built that same kind of loyalty in beauty. M&S has done a huge amount recently to change how younger consumers see the brand, right through to its first London Fashion Week show this year and Sephora adds another audience to that mix. Younger shoppers already trust Sephora to tell them what’s worth buying, so M&S is also borrowing some of that credibility,” he said. “Does the M&S shopper who comes in for food or fashion leave with a new beauty obsession? Does the Sephora customer who comes in for Rare Beauty end up discovering M&S fashion? The best version of this is both brands giving their biggest fans something new to fall in love with and then seeing how far they take it.”