Topshop eyeing U.S. expansion

By Martinne Geller

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Topshop, the trendy mass-market fashion retailer, could eventually have about 15 stores in the United States, said its billionaire owner Philip Green on the eve of its first U.S. opening.

Green said he sees the chain, whose clothes include a line designed by fashion maven Kate Moss, concentrated in major U.S. cities, such as New York, Los Angeles and Miami.

Its first U.S. store is set to open on Thursday in Manhattan's SoHo district, not far from Bloomingdale's and Japan's Uniqlo. He estimated that the initial investment in the shop was between $22 million (15.2 million pounds) and $24 million.

Despite a yearlong recession that has curbed U.S. consumer purchasing, Green said Topshop will appeal to a variety of consumers and that they will spend if the product is right.

"It's about having something that people want to buy," Green said in a phone interview. "We're in a marketplace where people want to mix and match, brand and not brand. I think we've got a lot of the attributes people are looking for."

He cited the company's track record of setting fashion trends and delivering "good quality and great value."

Green's firm Arcadia Group is the United Kingdom's largest privately owned retailer with more than 2,500 stores, plus about 420 franchise shops in Europe and Asia.

He said that he expected market conditions in the UK to remain challenging for most of this year.

(Reporting by Martinne Geller, editing by Leslie Gevirtz)