Sector Focus
Retail What is in store for the retail sector?
Phew! That’s another year over – and with all the negative media coverage of retail, particularly over the past six months or so, I am sure that there are many who work in retail or the retail-related property industry who are pleased to see us move on from 2018. But is 2019 going to be any
better - and was 2018 that bad? Our car park revenues over the
last three months of the year – the Golden Quarter for retailing – were up by more than seven per cent on the same period of 2017. This showed that not all is dead in our town centres and this was with a greater free parking provision at Octagon. Christmas came very late in retail
terms, with consumers thinking they had ‘an extra day’ in Christmas week. They held out for bargains and
left retailers biting their nails to the quick in anticipation before the crowds hit the Octagon and other shopping centres and high-streets all over the Midlands in the final week. Our peak day for footfall –
Saturday, 23 December (dubbed as Super Saturday) – was 1.5 per cent busier than the corresponding day
Retail Therapy
By Peter Hardingham General Manager, The Octagon Centre, Burton
the previous year. We experienced a very sharp day-on-day increase in footfall throughout this week – greater than was experienced nationally. This was to be expected in a more localised large town shopping destination such as is Burton upon Trent. Overall, our footfall in December
was only marginally down on December, 2017, and better than the national average for shopping centres. However, a couple of the weeks were flattered by weak comparisons from 2017 due to poor weather. Boxing Day did continue the
trend of recent years with a decrease in footfall of 2.8 per cent from 2017 and that was on the back of a 4.4 per cent drop from 2016 to 2017. But this was still better than
national figures would suggest, again reinforcing the ‘stay and spend local’ marketing message we had been promoting over the Christmas period. This was further helped by the
Octagon’s proximity marketing tool (used in conjunction with the centre’s ANPR-controlled car park) to target special offers and give- aways from retailers directly to
people entering our car park who had registered to receive these messages via their mobile phone. But what about 2019? So far, I
have avoided the word Brexit, a word even my computer no longer queries as to whether it is spelt correctly. But this is the subject that is damaging consumer confidence at present – both-in-stores and even to some degree on line. Until our relationship with
Europe is clarified, I fear the white- knuckle ride that is retailing at present will continue. Strap yourself in and hold on tight!
Busy shopping centre is now fully let
All Saints: All let
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72 CHAMBERLINK February 2019
A neighbourhood shopping centre in a Birmingham suburb is fully let for the first time in three years, with three stores signing up in the past 12 months alone. Sandwich chain Subway is the
last retailer to move to All Saints Shopping Centre, Shard End, which is a busy, modern shopping parade owned and managed by national commercial property and investment company LCP, about seven miles east of the city centre. It has signed a 10-year lease for
unit 12, a 767 sq ft shop on Ownall Street, opposite anchor tenant Midlands Co-operative Supermarket, and follows Vapour Wave, which took unit 6, opposite the library in March. Since LCP took over ownership of the centre in November 2015, it
has invested a substantial sum on a series of improvements, including external repairs and a new car parking scheme. Coupled with an intensive asset management scheme and pro- active marketing programme, asset manager Rakesh Joshi has helped to attract three high street names to the centre. He said: “All Saints Shopping
Centre is a thriving suburban centre and I’m very pleased to have signed a national tenant to the final unit. It’s good news for the local community, which relies on having a mixed retail offering on its doorstep.” LCP also has fully let nearby schemes being Castle Bromwich Shopping Centre and The Lanes Shopping Centre in Wylde Green.
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