A huge shopping centre in Kent is welcoming two new leading global brands.

Trespass and Birkenstock are the newest additions to Ashford Designer Outlet and will be opening in the next few months, centre bosses have announced.

Birkenstock, which sells shoes including its iconic sandal designs, is the first to launch in March.

Located next to the new Swarovski store, which opened in December, signs are already up for the brand in the Outlet’s extension.

Speaking ahead of Birkenstock’s opening, centre manager Peter Heritage said the brand has proved popular in other McArthurGlen outlets across the UK.

“It’s a really great brand and we’ve wanted to bring them to the centre for a while,” he said.

“It’s known for high-quality summer footwear so we’re particularly pleased that they’re opening in time for summer.

“We’ve got them inside of some of our other centres and they’re really popular – it’s a really exciting new addition.”

Recently in the extension, Calvin Klein opened in a bigger unit which Mr Heritage says has proven to be a success.

“It’s really starting to come together down there now,” he added.

“When you move a brand like Calvin Klein to that area of the centre it drives a lot more footfall.

“It’s visibly busier and you can see from the footfall going down there that it’s made a huge difference.”

The most recent brand to expand into a bigger unit is Barbour which will be opening inside Calvin Klein’s old unit.

Mr Heritage says this is a big increase for the clothing brand and its new site is almost double the size of the old one.

After Barbour has moved out of their old unit, Trespass will be moving in, with Mr Heritage hopeful the store will be open by April.

The outdoor brand joins other popular members of this category already in the centre including The North Face, Columbia, Mountain Warehouse and Jack Wolfskin.

“Trespass is an outdoor activewear brand which is a category that we’re already very strong in but this is something a little bit different so we think it will complement our existing brands,” Mr Heritage said.

“The customer at North Face is going to be very different to the customer at Trespass so they do complement each other very well.”

Meanwhile, the shopping centre has broken several records which Mr Heritage says shows the strong position the site is in amid the cost-of-living crisis.

“We’re sat at about 96% capacity. Most of the units that are empty, we have brands lined up for,” he said.

“We’re going to be opening a lot of exciting brands this year – maybe about 10. We opened 11 brands in 2023.

“Given the current climate and the way that retail is and concerns around the cost-of-living crisis, for us to be in that position just shows what a strong position we’re in as a shopping centre.

“Boxing Day was our biggest day ever, the week of Black Friday was our biggest week ever and last year, as a whole, was our biggest year ever so we broke lots of records which just goes to show the popularity of the shopping centre.

“When times are hard financially for people, we’ve got a unique desirability because people still want big brands but they want savings.

“People still want that day-out experience and would rather invest in a quality piece in the long term so they get better value for money.”

Following the recent news of The Body Shop going into administration, Mr Heritage added as of now, it is business as usual for the store at the outlet.

Meanwhile, The Cosmetic Company is having a refit and is shut until mid-March.