Beauty giant, Mecca Brands, has opened its highly anticipated Adelaide flagship store on Rundle Mall – marking the company’s 100^th outlet in Australia and New Zealand. The new standalone retail space is a brand-new store concept to South Australia and offers customers everything they love about Mecca Cosmetica, alongside everything a beauty junkie lusts after at Mecca Maxima.

The 400m2 store opened to huge crowds on Friday 12 April and is a completely new look for the retailer, with an even greater focus on digital and a vast 10 metre high entrance hall complementing the more than 100 MECCA exclusive luxury and blockbuster beauty brands customers will have access to.

 “100 stores is a dream I never dared to have, however it feels so extraordinary to see it materialise,” says MECCA Founder Jo Horgan. “It’s because our customers have embraced MECCA in all of its forms that we have been able to launch this latest iteration of MECCA.”

Hundreds queued to be the first

MCBRE’s Julia Pottenger, who negotiated the lease transaction, said the store’s prime CBD location was pivotal to the deal. “The search for Mecca Brands’ Adelaide flagship store commenced a few years ago with a number of false starts. The leading Australian beauty retailer is one of the most sought-after brands in the market, with landlords eager to secure them. Competition to land them as a tenant/client was high from both agents and owners alike.”

Pottenger went on say the opening highlighted the strengthening appeal for international retailers to secure a presence in the South Australian capital. “On the back of H&M opening and Mecca securing its store, the focus will now be on the last remaining international retailers yet to open in Adelaide. Suitable tenancies available on the mall remain the barrier to national and international brands securing space with larger footprint tenancies less common. Landlords are starting to look at their expiry profiles and seeing how they can create large floor plates within their existing buildings”

The eastern part of Rundle Mall will strengthen in May this year with the opening of Romeo’s Foodland supermarket – driving more foot traffic through the refurbished Rundle Square into the 1,500m2 supermarket and out onto Pulteney Street. MECCA  has signed a 10-year lease on its new Adelaide home, with a further 10-year option available.

Mecca’s new home in Adelaide Photo Credit: Josh Geelen

Makeup lovers can pick up cult-classic products from brands including NARS, Hourglass, Chantecaille and Stila, alongside Maxima favourites Urban Decay, Too Faced, Smashbox and MECCA MAX. A dedicated skin care area comes complete with a compelling line-up of luxurious brands including Eve Lom, Drunk Elephant, Tatcha and Kate Somerville.

The dedicated MECCA Perfumeria is home to a selection of the most sought-after brands including Byredo, Diptyque, Frederic Malle and 100 Bon, whilst MECCA Trove offers a carefully curated collection of beauty treasures sourced from around the globe, including candles from ANYA SMELLS and skincare from leading celebrity facilalist, Angela Caglia.

The new MECCA Rundle Mall store is all the more special for Horgan, knowing she’s been able to give the passionate South Australian beauty community something they have been asking for. “17 years ago in the days of snail mail I received a postcard begging me to open a MECCA store in Adelaide. I kept this as a motivator and whilst we’ve since opened a number of stores in the region, starting with our Mecca Cosmetica Burnside store in late 2006, I truly feel like this new space is answering the cry of that and many other beauty junkies all these years on.”

MECCA’s dedicated Fragrance, Skin and Colour specialists will be available to help shoppers looking to unearth new beauty favourites, and the inclusion of MECCA’s Beauty Lab concept will provide customers with a space to experiment with the latest products and learn new techniques. An additional eight makeup stations will be available for makeup appointments, alongside a dedicated space for skincare consultations and treatments.