Business News Retail Top Stories

Rough Trade links with Rise chain, confirms Nottingham shop

By Aly Barchi | Published on Thursday 3 July 2014

Music emporium Rough Trade is to launch a third British base inside Nottingham’s Creative Quarter following a new alliance with another indie record store chain, Rise.

The Rough Trade retail company has taken a majority stake in Rise and, as an offshoot of the deal, that company’s MD Lawrence Montgomery – who established the franchise in 2007 with his dad, Fopp founder Gordon Montgomery – has been made manager of Rough Trade’s regional retail operations.

The Nottingham branch, which RT HQ says is only the first in a string of new UK stores opening “in the near future”, adds to the Rough Trade empire’s east and west London sites, and, on the far side of the proverbial ‘pond’, its NYC store, which opened last year. So that’s four, four Rough Trade shops (for now). Ah ah ahhhh.

Montgomery Jr, who already oversees Rise stores in Bristol, Worcester and Cheltenham, has this to say: “Rough Trade defines the past, present and future of music retail like no other brand, so I’m delighted to be joining Rough Trade during this incredibly exciting period, helping bring their much loved and respected form of music retail to cities across the UK, starting with Nottingham”.

Meanwhile Rough Trade Director Stephen Godfroy says: “Lawrence is a tremendously exciting addition to the Rough Trade team. He gives us valuable regional UK perspective and an abundance of energy at precisely the right moment”.

He adds: “City centre retail is often overshadowed by the bar and restaurant sector in terms of providing places of communal vibrancy, so we hope to liven things up a little by giving innovative artists and independent thinkers a place to unite, creating places that aren’t afraid to experiment and rattle expectations”.

Further details are expected soon.