Motown plans move onto UK retail scene

Motown’s new chief executive André Harrell is planning to bring the record label’s Motown Café and concept store to London.

A Motown Café opened in New York last September and a second is planned for London in the next year.

The company aims to have 30 restaurants worldwide by the end of the decade, and each will incorporate a merchandising shop.

The label – that launched the careers of Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and Michael Jackson – will spread its name across a range of branded goods.

Harrell, 35, who took over last September, has also mooted the idea of a US-based theme park and says: “I intend to make Motown the black Disney.”

Motown’s parent company, PolyGram, need to recoup the 202m it spent on buying the record company in 1993.