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The retail business magazine from Land SecuritiesTRANSCRIPT
THE RETAIL MAGAZINE FROM LAND SECURITIES | WINTER 2009
St David’s Dewi Sant opens
Brand Empire
Clear and simple
FROM TWITTER TO THE TILLSHow retailers are making the most of social networking
16 Crystal clear Ever wish the entire leasing process was a
lot more simple? It is now thanks to Land Securities’ new Clearlet tenancy agreements.
18 Meeting the challenge Retail MD, Richard Akers on the challenges of
environmental sustainability, rent reform and investment in future shopping centres.
20 Cardiff lifts off The St David’s Dewi Sant centre in Cardiff
opens for business.
23 Competition Win £500 of John Lewis vouchers.
24 It’s all about teamwork Behind the scenes at St David’s Dewi Sant in
Cardiff as the management team prepare for opening day.
04 News Recent news, key openings, events and awards.
06 Bites News and snippets from the world of retail.
08 Latest lettings The very latest retailers signed up to Land
Securities developments.
10 Hot shop: What’s cooking? Jamie Oliver’s new retail project combines a
deli, a kitchenware shop and a cooking school.
12 World of interiors A new glossy book on store design proves
retailers are still innovating.
14 From Twitter to the tills British retailers are using social networking
websites to draw in customers. Facebook, Twitter and the like are helping boost business.
Are online social media taking over the world? Judging by the amount of time everyone spends on Facebook, Twitter, Bebo and the like, you’d be forgiven for thinking so. These new media have even made massive inroads into the world of retail, as our feature From Twitter to the tills (page 14) explains. Elsewhere in this issue we look at how Land Securities is simplifying the entire leasing process for its occupiers; how we’re enticing the very best overseas retail brands to the UK; how we’ve embarked on rent reform; and why investment in future shopping centres is looking brighter than ever. Talking of future shopping centres, don’t miss details of the latest Land Securities development to open, St David’s Dewi Sant, in Cardiff. See page 20. RICHARD AKERS, MANAGING DIRECTOR, RETAIL
Contents
Alma Media International Rayner’s Court, 737 Garratt Lane London SW17 0PD T +44 (0)20 8944 1155 / www.almamedia.co.uk
Editor Dominic Bliss Publisher Tony Richardson / [email protected] Design Deep / www.deep.co.uk
Images Land Securities, Next, Republic, TK Maxx, John Lewis Partnership, Apple, Cocoperez.com, Leon, Hollister, LK Bennett, Jamie’s Italian, Recipease, Marks & Spencer, Stores 09, French Connection, Monsoon, Superdry, Natural Kitchen, Dominic James and Twitter.
For Land Securities Tom Foulkes [email protected] T +44 (0)20 7024 5089
Claire Reynolds [email protected] T +44 (0)20 7747 2390
© Alma Media International Ltd 2009
All material is strictly copyright and all rights are reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without the written permission of Alma Media International is strictly forbidden. The greatest care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of information in this magazine at the time of going to press, but we accept no responsibility for omissions or errors. The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of Alma Media International or Land Securities.
26 Come to Britain A new Land Securities retail venture aims
to entice top brands to the UK.
28 The work-shop balance Faulty irons, St Paul’s Cathedral and driving in
rural Oxforshire: all in a day’s work for Land Securities’ Retail Manager London Portfolio.
30 The retail therapists The burning issues in retail at Land Securities,
as discussed by their top asset managers. 32 Arts in the city Plans are afoot for an interactive art
installation at the new TrinityLeeds shopping centre in Leeds. Professional artists (and locals) will be encouraged to daub it with their art.
34 Retail portfolio A quick overview of our retail centres and
developments.
News
Products on sale include furniture, lighting,
bedroom and bathroom accessories, kitchenware,
electrical goods, and white goods. The store also
features ‘customer access terminals’ which allow
shoppers to browse the full John Lewis range online.
“Our research identified Poole as a good
catchment,” says Andy Street, Managing Director
at John Lewis. “Land Securities was able to
accommodate us very quickly. Christmas trading
will be a key indicator for us to decide how soon
we should expand the format across the country.”
John Lewis has chosen The Commerce Centre,
Poole, in Dorset, as the site of its very first John
Lewis At Home store. The retailer’s new stand-alone
home and electricals shop is spread across
40,000 sq ft at the Land Securities development
in Branksome, alongside Homebase, Boots and
Laura Ashley. If successful, it will be the prototype
for further At Home outlets all across the UK.
The company says it has already identified between
30 and 50 potential towns where demand for such
a store would be high.
Home from home
The City is changing
Land Securities is changing the face of the City of London.
One New Change is bringing an unprecedented mix of uses
and pioneering design to the capital city. October saw the
topping out ceremony which celebrated construction reaching
its highest point.
Due for practical completion in September 2010, One New
Change will provide four floors of office space and three floors
of retail, bringing a new dynamic to the area and celebrating
both modern and historic architecture.
Up to 750,000 people visit St Paul’s Cathedral each year, while
footfall in the vicinity reaches the millions – One New Change
is ideally located to transform their experience. Nearly half of
the 65 shop and restaurant units have already been let to the
likes of Hobbs, Reiss, H&M, Marks & Spencer and Topshop.
It is part of the regeneration of the City of London, and
One New Change will be particularly transformational due
to its retail offering.
One New Change, Topping Out Ceremony, 13th October 2009
News 05
Cabot Circus pushes green button
Bristol’s flagship shopping centre,
Cabot Circus, has won an award for its
environmental sustainability. At this
year’s Estates Gazette Green Awards
the Land Securities scheme – a joint
venture with Hammerson plc – won
in the Overall Green Development of
the Year category.
Launched in 2008, the EG Green Awards
are designed to reward sustainable
property development, and to raise
awareness of environmental issues.
Bites
Bite size 07
When it comes to placing top executives
in the UK retail industry, headhunters wield
enormous power.
RETAIL POWER
Lesley Exley has hunted some of the finest
heads in the retail business. MD of Exley
Hervey, an executive search agency in
London, she has placed senior staff at the
likes of Fortnum & Mason, Fat Face, Banana
Republic, Ann Summers, The White
Company, Christie’s and Fabergé. She and
her colleagues specialise in retail, luxury
brands, consumer brands and e-commerce.
“We are a boutique agency, so while we
don’t place huge numbers of candidates, we
do place the top executives in the top retail
jobs,” she says.
Lesley has held a few top jobs of her own.
After working in brand management for
L’Oréal, the International Gold Corporation
and Waterford Wedgwood, she took up her
first retail role at Zales jewellers.
The job that firmly cemented her place in
big-time retail was in 1992 when she was
appointed marketing director of Selfridges.
“When I joined, the store was like Are You
Being Served?,” she says. “It was nearly 100
years old and part of this huge conglomerate.
Our team put together the business strategy
for transforming it into a destination
department store for the next century.”
Thanks to hands-on experience in sectors
as diverse as jewellery, ceramics, textiles,
fashion, beauty and, in the case of Selfridges,
just about everything else, Lesley says she
understands the massively different cultures
of the companies she headhunts for. Ensuring
that potential executives match these
varying cultures is, she believes, the main
reason for Exley Hervey’s success. She claims
her company is now one of the top boutique
headhunters in the UK, and “fast becoming
known for our expertise in e-commerce”.
Lesley lives in west London with her
husband and their teenage daughter.
POUNDS PER SQUARE INCH
Which UK stores are taking the most cash per area of shopfloor?
It’s all very well having a huge turnover, but if your store is the size of a football
pitch then that turnover can become diluted by expensive overheads. One large
London store, however, is reaping enormous sales despite its massive floorspace.
The Apple store, on London’s Regent Street, stretches 28,000 square feet across
two floors, yet its tills still ker-ching to more than £60 million a year in takings –
that’s over £2,100 per square foot. According to retail research company Verdict
Research, this is one of the highest turnovers per area – or sales densities, as
they’re known – in the whole country.
“Whether it is actually the highest in the country, however, is rather open
to debate,” says the research company’s consulting director Neil Saunders.
“There may well be luxury jewellers or niche high-end clothing stores with
higher density numbers.”
What about some of the better known UK stores? Yes, you guessed it: Tesco is
the big boy (see graph below), with an average of £1,232 in takings per square
foot. Close behind is Sainsbury’s at £1,012. Then comes Harrods at £775, Selfridges
at £655 and John Lewis at £640.
Fashion bloggers are the new masters when it comes to
which clothes we buy and lust after. But of the thousands
of blogs out there, which are the most unmissable?
1
WHATKATIEWORE.COM
Scottish blogger Katie Mackay
has challenged herself to
wear a different outfit every
day for a year. The results
enjoy something of a cult
following on her website, with
over 1,500 page views a day.
“Sometimes it’s just a random
assortment of brightly
coloured things pulled
together by a piece of
jewellery or silly tights,”
says the 20-something self-
confessed shoe-hoarder.
She apparently has over
200 pairs in her wardrobe.
3
COCOPEREZ.COM
Perez Hilton knows a thing
or two about celebrity gossip,
as anyone who has seen the
infamous perezhilton.com
(aka “Hollywood’s most
hated website”) will testify.
His new blog, cocoperez.com,
concentrates on the fashion
side of celebrity. Just as
bitchy, and just as funny, it’s
essential surfing for anyone
who wants to keep up with
what outfits the rich and
famous are sporting.
2
THESARTORIALIST.COM
Scott Schuman has been
hailed by GQ magazine as
“one of the most influential
style bloggers on the planet”.
His massively popular blog,
thesartorialist.com, posts
photos of ordinary people
wearing cool clothes, shot
mainly on the streets of New
York and London. Here’s Scott
on British men’s style: “Man,
you British just love a pale
pink shirt. It’s tough because
it blends into your skin and it
looks as if you’re only wearing
a tie around your neck.”
4
STYLEBUBBLE.TYPEPAD.COM
10,000 readers a day and
rising. Fashion blog Style
Bubble (posted by London
journalist Susie Bubble, aka
Susie Lau) has been attracting
fans across Europe, USA and
Asia ever since it launched
three years ago and is now
considered essential reading
for even mainstream
fashionistas. Susie lists the
following as her favourite
accessories: Salvatore
Ferragamo bow flats, grey
jersey T-shirt that hangs right,
a proper pair of black opaque
tights, vintage slip dresses/
skirts and some well-fitting
leather gloves.
SHOPULAR CULTURE
WHERE I BUY MY ESSENTIALS
E-commerce is severely threatening high street bookshops. But these three Land Securities
employees are still happily browsing. They’re rather fond of their shoes, too.
WHERE I BUY MY ESSENTIALS
ANDREW RAWLINGS Portfolio Manager
For nearly two decades now, I have pawed over the shelves of Galloway and Porter, in Cambridge.
Not only is it a hybrid discount bookshop, but it has over three floors of fiction and non-fiction, as
well as a fantastic collection of history, art and poetry books. It’s great for the self-indulgent reader
or to buy presents for that great aunt with a literary bent.
With a shoe size of only six and a half, this does prove a challenge. Being an avid bargain hunter
I usually visit TK Maxx. There’s a great one at Willow Place, the shopping centre I look after in Corby.
How is it you can buy a pair of hand-made Italian shoes for under £50?
ShARoN MooRE PA at Land Securities Retail
I’m a crime novel junkie, so a trip to Waterstone’s (in The Grand Building, on London’s Trafalgar
Square) is a must for me on a regular basis, especially when they have their ‘3 for the price of 2’ offers.
Staff are knowledgeable and happy to help search for a specific item, or order it if it’s not in stock.
I prefer the tactile approach to books, browsing before I buy, so I don’t often purchase on-line.
I love buying shoes, even though I’m no longer able to wear the high heels I used to. There’s a
beautiful shoe shop in Scarborough called Pavers Shoes (on Westborough), and when I’m visiting
I try to pick up one or two pairs. The service is excellent and they are very patient. I usually try five
or six pairs and then attempt to whittle them down to one or two. Their shoes are always just
a little different and I’m less likely to bump into anyone wearing the same pair.
NICK PEEL Head of Retail Property Management
For books I mainly use Waterstone’s, in Harrogate, my home town. Their multi-buy promotions at
holiday periods are always very competitive and include a broad choice. With three children under
the age of seven, we spend every weekend buying children’s books of varying age levels. My kids
seem to be eating them at present, and they are on first-name terms with the staff.
Don’t laugh, but I have one foot slightly bigger than the other. Freak! So when it comes to
shoes, half sizes and soft but hard-wearing leather are important. For work shoes I use Hoopers,
a department store in Harrogate, which has a fabulous men’s department. My choice in recent years
has been Prada, but since I’m a Scotsman, they usually have to be in the sale. For casual shoes
I stock up from Camper, in Dublin, when we visit a couple of times a year. Source: Verdict Research
£0
£300
£600
£900
£1200
£123
2
£101
2
£775
£655
£640
£611
£503
£446
£417
£362
£217
£134
Sales density (£ per sq ft)
08 Lettings update
John Grimes
Retail Leasing Director
Keith Stone
Alliance Leasing Director
John Grimes, this marks the start
of a wider leasing programme that
will reposition the centre within
Liverpool’s retail hierarchy.
New Street Square, London EC4
Situated just off historic Fetter Lane
in central London, New Street Square
is an office campus with retail and
dining attached, catering for high-
earning City workers based in the
five nearby office buildings.
“There’s a big lunch trade and
brands that suit the market, including
Hotel Chocolat and Corney &
Barrow,” says David Atcherley-Symes,
Retail Manager for Land Securities’
London portfolio.
The award-winning Italian café
Caffé Vergnano has just been signed,
while organic café Pod is opening
in November, bringing some
individuality and wider choice to
the centre. Hair and beauty specialist
Chequers is opening in February
next year, offering Clarins facial
treatments, waxing and tanning
to busy office workers.
One New Change, London
This high-profile mixed-use
development in a stunning City
of London location is taking shape
as it heads towards the planned
October 2010 opening. One New
Change will offer state-of-the-art
office accommodation and more
than 60 retail units over three
floors, all on the doorstep of
St Paul’s Cathedral.
Atcherley-Symes expects a raft of
exciting retail and restaurant names
to be announced very soon.
St David’s Dewi Sant, Cardiff
Welsh shoppers are relishing the
choice of over 150 new shops, cafés
and restaurants at the major St David’s
Dewi Sant development, which opened
successfully on October 22nd in
the heart of Cardiff. Delivered by
Land Securities in partnership with
Capital Shopping Centres, it boasts
the extensively re-landscaped external
street The Hayes, bisected by a
series of retail-rich thoroughfares.
“The scale and impact of St David’s
Dewi Sant needs to be seen to be
believed,” says Keith Stone, Leasing
Director at Land Securities. “John
Lewis has opened a fabulous store.
The development will have a significant
impact on retailing in Cardiff.”
Cardiff is one of the largest cities in
the UK and a European capital. In spite
of the testing economic conditions,
over 70 per cent of floorspace is
already committed, providing an
exciting mix of fashion, major stores,
department stores, cafés and
restaurants. In September John Lewis
chose this location to open its largest
department store outside of London,
and already trading is well above
expectations. Debenhams has extended
its outlet to create one of the chain’s
largest stores in the UK, while Marks
& Spencer provides the third anchor.
H&M and New Look have taken
major flagship stores, ensuring fashion
fans will flock to the centre. The
external area, The Hayes, is almost
fully let. It will include brands new to
Cardiff such as Hugo Boss, Crew and
accessories favourite Radley. All stand-
alone stores, they will sit alongside
other fashion draws such as All Saints,
Fat Face, Links of London, Reiss and
LK Bennett. The restaurant Jamie’s
Italian is also joining the party.
In the Grand Arcade, which sweeps
from north to south through the
centre, the fashion line-up is already
looking very impressive. All four of
the Aurora brands – Coast, Karen
Millen, Warehouse and Oasis – are
represented, joining Cult, Fenchurch
and Quiksilver, among others.
The Apple store had a sensational
opening day with extensive queues
down the Arcade.
Cabot Circus, Bristol
Bristol’s Cabot Circus scheme has
gone from strength to strength since
it opened in September last year.
The Bristol Alliance (Land Securities
& Hammerson) own over 1.5 million
sq ft of retail floorspace in the city
centre and over 30 new shops have
opened across the estate since the
opening of Cabot Circus. Abercrombie
& Fitch’s sister brand Hollister has
taken a 9,200 sq ft store which will
open in December.
Other new names include The
North Face, Gant, Jones the
Bootmaker, Sainsbury’s, Currys and
PC World.
Clayton Square, Liverpool
Clayton Square is in the heart of
Liverpool’s retail quarter and
shoppers and tourists can expect
to see a host of new names arriving
here in Spring 2010. Electronics
brand Maplin and Mothercare/ELC
have signed up to 2,500 sq ft and
15,000 sq ft units respectively.
According to Retail Leasing Director
It’s fashion and food all the way as new businesses make the most of retail developments in Cardiff, Bristol, Liverpool and London.
St David’s Dewi Sant
Cardiff
John Lewis
Debenhams
Hollister
H&M
New Look
Hugo Boss
Crew
Radley
All Saints
Fat Face
Reiss
LK Bennett
Jamie’s Italian
Coast
Karen Millen
Warehouse
Oasis
Cult
Fenchurch
Quiksilver
Apple Store
Links of London
TGI Fridays
Yo! Sushi
Cabot Circus
Bristol
Hollister
The North Face
Gant
Jones the Bootmaker
Sainsbury’s
Currys
PC World
Clayton Square
Liverpool
Maplin
Mothercare
ELC
New Street Square
London EC4
Hotel Chocolat
Corney & Barrow
Caffé Vergnano
Pod
Chequers
Some of the latest lettings at Land Securities Retail
David Atcherley-Symes
Retail Manager
Latest lettings
Jamie Oliver’s latest retail project combines a delicatessen, a kitchenware shop and a cooking school. The new south London branch is so impressive that it has won the prestigious Land Securities’ Best UK Retail Interior at this year’s Retail Interiors Awards, as John Ryan discovers.
From the outside it almost suggests food porn. The front of Jamie
Oliver’s new “food and kitchen emporium” – Recipease, in south
London – features an unmissable, powder pink façade, while the
shop window is crammed with cookbooks, crockery and delicious,
wholesome food.
The location, in Battersea, near the very upmarket Northcote
Road, is perfect: there are dozens of specialist food retailers and
delicatessens along this stretch, all very popular with the young
professionals and families that live in the adjoining streets.
Step inside and you’re not quite sure where to look. After
wading through the display racks and counters filled to the brim
with gorgeous-looking jams, relishes, bottles of wine, kitchenware,
crockery and (of course) lots of Jamie Oliver-branded books
and cooking products, you then find yourself at a huge, cooking
station, slap bang in the middle of the shop floor. Atop the marble
work surfaces are tubs of peppers and lemons. Perched on the
canopy above are dozens of spice jars. Spoons and other kitchen
implements hang down.
Recipease is the latest brand extension from the cheeky
TV chef. It’s designed to offer fine ingredients, the tools to
cook them and tuition in how best to prepare them. Overall
it’s a stunning shop, good enough to sweep the board at this
year’s Retail Interiors Awards, picking up gongs for Best Visual
Merchanding, Best Small Shop and the grand prix Land Securities
Best UK Retail Interior.
“Jamie’s very keen to get people involved in working with
and thinking about food,” explains Simon Cochrane, Recipease’s
Managing Director. “When we came to look at how we could
create a store that would allow people to buy food and to learn
how to cook it, we wanted to do something different. We didn’t
want to follow a particular design, so we started from scratch.”
The outcome is a store where food, and all things involved in its
preparation, is displayed in an environment reminiscent of a rural
French or Italian market. Its unique selling point, however, is that
trained chefs will give you lessons in how to cook the food you
buy there, before sending you home with the dishes you create.
Learn how to make Italian-style pizza, for example, or risotto,
or apple pancakes, or mozzarella meatballs, steak, sea bass, pasta,
crumble, pork belly, cottage pie…there’s even an industrial-sized
TV screen on one wall as a teaching aid.
“It’s a buzzing community hub for great food, inspiration and
cooking skills,” says Jamie himself. “Whether you’re a complete
novice or a seasoned pro, you can come here to ask questions,
learn new skills, get inspiration and try some really fantastic food.
Come in, do a lesson, grab a great dinner to take home, or just
nosey around, picking up inspiration.”
Cochrane says that between 25 and 30 per cent of Recipease
customers come for a cookery lesson. While the ingredients on
sale are certainly not cheap, he stresses that his clientele will
be saving money by eating at home instead of in a restaurant.
This, he adds, is the justification for opening the shop during
tough economic times.
That said, walk through this part of south London and it’s
almost as if the financial crisis never happened. The area is filled
with young professionals and their families, many on a mission
to shop for quality food. Fantastic visual merchandising and a
shop fit-out where nothing has been left to chance, would seem
to indicate that Recipease is in for the long game. The Battersea
store opened in March, and a second branch came to Brighton,
two months later.
“It’s a buzzing community hub for great food, inspiration and cooking skills.” Jamie Oliver
Hot shop 11
Despite the effects of the recession, store design around the world
continues apace. All throughout the financial tumult of the last
year or so, retailers have been unveiling glamorous new interiors
at the top end of the spectrum and, further down the food chain,
new formats with true popular appeal have continued to appear.
So when it came to choosing the last year’s best 50 stores for
a new book, the task was one of editing, rather than a desperate
scramble to seek out novelty.
Some of the projects were so stunning that they virtually
selected themselves: House of Barbie in Shanghai, for example,
or the Primark stores in Bristol and Bremen, and Uniqlo’s highly
contemporary structure in Tokyo’s Shinjuku neighbourhood.
But there has been excellent work in all sectors. Both big and
small retailers have been pulling out the design stops to ensure
they remain competitive. For this, the third book in Land
Securities’ ‘Stores’ series, the view was that there are now
sufficiently strong trends to separate the store designs into
different themes.
So, rather than just being a coffee-table volume, Stores 2009
features different sections ranging from ‘Green’ and ‘Luxury’, to
‘Pop-up’ stores and ‘Visual Merchandising’. The aim is to inform
as well as entertain.
The other task that is always something of a headache when
putting together a book of this nature is imagery. Fortunately
almost all of the chosen retailers were happy to supply
photography that captures the essence of their stores. Where this
was not possible they allowed photo shoots at very short notice.
At the top end, it would be hard to look at 2009 without
mentioning Regent Street’s National Geographic store. This is
that rare beast, a store that caters for luxury shoppers, but
which is accessible to all. As a design, the internal landscape is
startling, whether it’s the bazaar-style café, the shipping crate-
turned-chiller unit in which customers can test thermal clothing,
or the first floor’s map and book area. While you often hear store
designers talking about shopping journeys, National Geographic
offers its customers something rather better: a voyage. It’s an
environment in which a 19th-century explorer back from his
travels might feel at home.
The store makes much of sustainability, something that is
writ large in another new London shop: Timberland, in Westfield
London, Shepherd’s Bush. From the outside this looks like a giant
wooden puzzle, or perhaps an outsized version of the brand’s
abstract tree logo. It’s an extraordinary piece of retail architecture
which, inside, pays homage to the environment. Graphics
emphasise the provenance of almost every element of the
store’s interior.
Urban Outfitters’ store in Land Securities’ Cabot Circus scheme
in Bristol also impresses with its green mindset. The interior has
the usual flair associated with the brand, but it’s the use of natural
and sustainable materials that really set this one apart.
Further afield, Sir Philip Green’s New York expedition, with the
April opening of Topshop in the city, stands as the prime example
of how a strong brand can cross continents and create almost
exactly the same wow factor as back home.
And finally, if you were to open Stores 2009 at random, your
attention would almost certainly be caught by Copenhagen’s
Monki. This is a fashion store peopled by soft creatures called
Monkis. It’s a value offer, but no prices are displayed and it lacks
any kind of in-store navigation. Oh yes, and the Monkis are made
from a cocktail of chemicals found in the “city of oil and steel”,
apparently. Go figure.
It’s clear, then, that store design, even in financially ice-bound
times, continues to form a major part of retailers’ armouries.
And if you don’t like a design, just wait a while. There’ll be
something new in a few weeks or so.
By rights, the world of store design should have ground to a halt in 2009. But the Stores 2009 book, from Land Securities, proves that retailers are still innovating. John Ryan reports.
World of
Regent Street’s National Geographic store has a bazaar-style café and a shipping crate-turned-chiller unit in which customers can test thermal clothing. It’s an environment in which a 19th-century explorer back from his travels might feel at home.
Store design 13
interiors
All images from Stores 2009
Left to right: Topshop, New York; Monki, Copenhagen;
Timberland, London.
To receive a copy of Stores 2009 please email
experts sound a note of caution. “Using social media for
ongoing interaction with customers is fantastic, but the store
experience must follow through or all the effort has been
wasted,” says Simon Boydell, Marketing Manager at customer
service experts Retail Eyes. “Carefully nurtured brand allegiance
can all be ripped apart instantly by someone going into a store
and receiving bad service.”
Boydell also argues that discount alerts sent by text or
customer service updates Tweeted from a distant CEO will
never carry the weight of helpful advice and product knowledge
received face-to-face in store. “Assistants in the O2 shop,
for example, who guide you to the most suitable phone then
become the embodiment of the O2 brand,” he says. “You’ll return
to a specific shop because of the great service someone gave
you. And the more mainstream online shopping becomes, the
more important it will be for the bricks and mortar retailers
to get their customer service right.”
Hard evidence of sales being boosted by marketing Tweets
or social networks has yet to emerge, but it’s clear that social
media can only ever be part of the wider picture in retail brand-
building and customer engagement. As one wise Twitter user
recently said: “Embarking on a social media strategy to help
with marketing is like embarking on a facial muscle strategy
to help with smiling.”
platforms, as a means of listening to what customers are saying,
and responding appropriately,” he says.
Mobile phone retailers love the idea of using online forums
as a means of gauging customer opinions and solving service
problems as quickly as they can. Carphone Warehouse now posts
customer complaints on its website for all to see, with CEO
Charles Dunstone extolling the virtues of transparency in the
business. This summer Phones4U went live with www.theubar.
com, an online forum with real-time customer dialogue which
they use to gather feedback on their products and services, and to
teach customers how to use their phone hardware and software.
Social networking is a growing phenomenon in fashion
retail, too. Burberry, for example, recently launched
www.artofthetrench.com in a bid to strengthen customer
relationships, and now has over 690,000 fans on Facebook,
so is keen to tap into this consumer interest more directly.
“These might not even be customers yet,” says Chief Executive
Angela Ahrendts. “Or they may be a customer for a bottle of
fragrance or for eyewear. But these are the customers who need
the brand experience, who need to feel the brand. That word-of-
mouth spreads through their social networks and continues to be
a positive conversation [about Burberry]. That is so powerful.”
Mobile internet applications take the relationship a stage
further, offering signed-up customers the chance to browse and
shop on the move from their smart phones. In June, high street
favourite Oasis, for example, launched a mobile shopping
application in conjunction with Apple’s iPhone.
Few retailers can afford to ignore these developments in
mobile technology, and the potential power of marketing
through Facebook, Twitter and the like. But customer service
Domestic dramas are being played out live on Asda’s social
networking site your.asda.com. Evonne Gaittens from Motherwell
desperately wants gluten-free porridge for her 70-year-old celiac
father, but it’s only available in three Scottish branches. David
from Portsmouth can’t understand why it’s so hard to find beef
burgers with no onion. Bob Burbridge from Liverpool was after a
vegan food list from his local store but to no avail, until his plight
was picked up on the website and the required list posted online.
British retailers have revealed a host of cutting-edge social
networking initiatives this year in the hope of edging closer to
their customers. Asda’s site went live this August and is now
giving users access to product guides, blogs from senior staff
members, customer feedback forums, a live Twitter feed and
a video and photo gallery.
“Asda wanted to move with the times and show people what
we were doing with more user-friendly content,” says an Asda
spokesman. It’s certainly fun and accessible, with customers
posting pictures of their kids asleep in trolleys, for example,
or Asda publicising store appearances by Peter Andre and the
launch of new George fashion ranges, all the while dealing
publicly with individual customer requests. The supermarket
now has 1,686 Twitter followers who receive messages such as
“Bishop of Reading says Jesus would have shopped at Asda”
or “We’ve peeled back banana prices to 1995 levels”.
Chris Lake, from Econsultancy.com, is a digital marketing
specialist. He applauds retailers for embracing the new
technology, but hopes it will be used for “two-way
conversations”, not just for pushing marketing messages,
or replicating the content of email and direct mail marketing
campaigns. “Social networks should be viewed as engagement
Facebook, Twitter, Bebo and all manner of online customer forums… British retailers are attracting more and more customers through social networking websites. Alison Clements discovers how it all works.
Retailers network online 15
Asda’s social networking website has customers posting pictures of their kids asleep in trolleys, for example, or Asda publicising store appearances by Peter Andre and the launch of new George fashion ranges.
From Twitterto the tills
tweet 20% OFF
Newrange
Sale
Keep them sweet with Tweets
Here are the kinds of messages that retailers are sending
out to their customers.
Topshop
Like the Christopher Kane dress Alexa Chung wore on her
MTV show last night? http://bit.ly/178Zvc You can get it
here http://bit.ly/YFq3J
Selfridges
Heads up to Manchester beauty queens, Dolce & Gabbana
make-up now available at Trafford as of this week!
The Conran Shop
The Conran Shop invites you to the ‘New Philippe Starck’s
Parrot Zikmu’ launch at our Chelsea store tomorrow
6pm-8pm. [email protected]
Office
Hark back to days gone by and revisit the 40s with an
Office twist! http://bit.ly/Hk0w7
Debenhams
We’re donating 20 per cent of the sale of selected Blue
Zoo products to children’s charities – see them here
http://bit.ly/tXT1R
Asda
From today you can book a winter flu jab in an Asda
in-store pharmacy for just £8: http://bit.ly/3i3Ib
Superdry
Have you seen Superdry’s new Facebook album? Famous
Fans of Superdry – check it out! http://bit.ly/7ASBd
ASOS
We’re loving French Connection’s fab frocks – perfect for
party season: http://bit.ly/fabfrocks Spot the 4 exclusive-
to-ASOS designs...
ww
Tenancies 17
Clive Ashcroft
Head of Legal Services
The average tenancy agreement is never likely to read like the
latest Harry Potter novel, but don’t tell that to Clive Ashcroft,
Head of Legal Services at Land Securities. He is a man with a
mission – to make Land Securities’ retail leases as near to child’s
play as humanly possible.
“We did jokingly suggest all our contracts should be
understandable by the seven-year-old son of one of the partners
of the law firms we use,” says Ashcroft, describing how the
company’s Clearlet scheme has evolved. “We may not quite have
achieved that, but a 15-year-old could certainly understand them.”
Ashcroft, who has worked at Land Securities “man and boy”
for 27 years, stresses that Clearlet is “evolutionary rather than
revolutionary”. Land Securities has worked on plain-English versions
of legal documents before and has always been innovative. 15 years
ago, for example, the company was the first to offer tenants a
25-page lease. Nevertheless, the difference Clearlet is making is
already being noticed. “Leases used to go back and forth endlessly
between us and the clients or their lawyers,” Ashcroft adds. “We
might end up with 10 pages of amendments. Now that’s all gone.”
The starting point for the project was the company’s retail
warehouse portfolio. “There was no reason leases on individual
units on an estate should be 70-odd pages long and take weeks
to negotiate,” he says. “Then we thought: If we can make it work
there, why not for our shopping centres as well?”
The new leases are far shorter and outlaw legal jargon such as
“pursuant to” and “thereon” in favour of the everyday language
of “you, me and us”. But getting the language right was only part
of the battle. Ashcroft worked closely with the company’s outside
legal advisors (Dundas & Wilson, Nabarro and Eversheds) to
come up with a lease that would meet all parties’ needs. “I have
to credit Belinda Solomon of Nabarro who produced the first
version of the Clearlet lease,” he says. “I challenged her to come
up with something, then we fought over it hammer and tongs.
She played the tenant and I played the landlord. That’s how we
got down to the issues that really mattered to our occupiers.”
To ensure that he was getting a genuine occupier perspective,
Ashcroft also drew on feedback from Land Securities’ forum of
retailers. Some of the biggest trading names in the UK, including
River Island, H&M, Arcadia, Nando’s and Carluccio’s, who were all
invited to contribute, as were major department stores such as
Debenhams and Marks & Spencer.
Ashcroft calls the result a “customer-focussed approach
to sharing the risk and responsibility” of entering into a lease.
It’s not that Land Securities has gone soft, but it is trying to
make sure it understands its customers’ needs. “One of the things
we have introduced with Clearlet is the option of monthly rents
as standard. The cashflow benefit to our occupiers of monthly
rental payments often outweighs the additional cost and risk to
us so we are improving the efficiency of the relationship.”
Land Securities has also challenged itself to meet clients’ needs
in other respects. If, for example, Land Securities doesn’t respond
to tenants’ applications (change of use, assignment under letting
etc) within a set timeframe, it now grants “deemed consent”.
“It is a huge step for a landlord to make,” says Ashcroft. “But
we believe our systems are robust enough to make it work.”
Equally, the leases themselves are “code compliant”. For
example, they meet the terms of the Commercial Landlords’
Accreditation Scheme. “We took the attitude: okay, we have
signed up to these codes, now let’s live them.”
Clearlet is not intended primarily to drive the market,
but in challenging times it certainly won’t do any harm.
“We want someone new from Europe, for example, to come
to us first,” Ashcroft says. “A very short document that their
lawyers understand reduces the risk to them, and, we become
the landlord who is actively supporting and delivering new
brands, which is fantastic.”
Allan Wernham, a partner at Dundas & Wilson who has
been closely involved, is a strong supporter. “Coming up with a
scheme that is more tenant-friendly from the outset should help
get deals done and rent committed more quickly and easily,”
he says. “That allows us to play a part in Land Securities’ efforts
to build positive relationships with retailers and to stand out
from the competition.”
Indeed, the next stage is to put together a forum of the
legal firms working for retailers to explain to them the benefits
of a simpler lease. “We do want lawyers to buy into this,” says
Ashcroft. And there’s good reason to do so: “If lawyers can make
quicker decisions, that means they make more money.”
For Ashcroft, however, something else matters even more.
“Land Securities has always been an honourable company and
honouring customer focus is now at the very heart of everything
we do on the legal side of the business.”
Land Securities are introducing new lease agreements, under their Clearlet scheme, designed to simplify the entire leasing process. Nigel Billen finds out how it works.
Portfolio 19
Challenging. That’s the word that most sums up
how the market has been since the last issue of
A1 came out in the early summer.
That’s not to say it’s just the market that has
been challenging for us and our customers during
that time. No, it goes further than that. Convention
has been challenged. Established ways of working
have been challenged. Relationships, traditions…
I have never known a time when we and our various
consultants, partners and customers have been so
open to change and innovation.
What I hadn’t anticipated is how positive a
downturn can be. I know I’ll be accused of finding
a silver lining in all of this, but I am convinced
the downturn has presented us with some real
opportunities that will transform our business over
the coming years.
I’ll give you two fairly well publicised examples.
The first is something we spent a lot of time
discussing in the last issue: rent reform in the shape
of monthly rent payments and the subsequent work
we did concerning service-charge reform and the
creation of our 10-point plan. Work has continued
in this area. We’ve really challenged ourselves to
maintain momentum.
The second is the area of environmental
sustainability. We were concerned that the
environmental agenda might be forced into the
background in more austere times, but in fact we’ve
witnessed the contrary: it has just highlighted the
fact that sustainability is not a bolt-on; it is part
of everything we do. Weaving sustainability into
existing practices such as cost control, store
development, buying and recruitment means we
are able to support retailers in a much more
standardised way. It makes all of our efforts more
effective. The sustainability guide attached to this
magazine is evidence of the progress we are making.
There’s been a real thirst amongst our customers
for information. They want to know about the
10-point plan; how we can save them money; how
we can help them achieve their sustainability
objectives; how we can bring them together with
their competitors to achieve synergies. In the
position we occupy as property partner we have
become a real facilitator of change. It’s a role that
demands a lot, and I’m delighted to say that the
team has really stepped up. The feedback I’m getting
from our customers tells me we’re doing a great job.
So what’s next? Where should we expect Land
Securities to concentrate its energies? What’s the
next target of change and reform?
I actually have two targets at the moment. I’m
a little worried about the first – our lease structure
– as I think I might be opening up a Pandora’s Box.
But I think it’s a dysfunction in our industry that
needs to be addressed. We’ve made some
enormous progress in this area recently thanks
to Clearlet [see page 16 for more information], but
I think we can still go a lot further. I may be flirting
with controversy, but I believe that upward-only
rent reviews and security of tenure provision create
a dysfunction that we and our retail customers
could well do without.
Rent reviews are damaging in many ways.
Not just because retailers don’t like them, but
also because objectives can become muddled.
Too often the imperative in the lead-up to rent
reviews is to create evidence and this can be
at the expense of tenant mix and the long-term
attractiveness of a centre to its catchment.
But if we do away with upward-only rent
reviews and move to a turnover rent model, then
we also have to do away with the security of
tenure provision of the Landlord and Tenant Act.
That is the only way to dispense completely with
rents being set based on comparable evidence. We
have learnt from the experience of operating outlet
centres that tenure secured by strong turnover
performance focuses everyone’s minds, leading to a
far closer working relationship with occupiers and
ultimately stronger asset performance. That is
because all interests end up aligned and, in effect,
we become a partner to our occupiers. I would
welcome views on this and think it’s something
we should be debating as an industry.
My second target is to consider how shopping-
centre developments will come about in the future.
How can we deliver schemes like Cardiff, Bristol or
Birmingham? How can we deliver schemes that are
matched perfectly to the needs and existing fabric
of the cities they occupy, but which require huge
risk capital to make them happen? (Risk capital that
would be difficult to raise in the current market.)
Do we have to wait for a recovery? Will there
ever be a return to a market such as the one we
saw over the last 10 years or so? Or is there
another way?
We’re looking at Tax Increment Financing very
carefully [See sidebar for more info], but it strikes
us that this kind of approach – where in effect you
are spending public money, albeit public money
that hasn’t yet been received – calls for extremely
high principles.
We’re wondering how our industry will respond
to this challenge. How can we ensure that this
vehicle isn’t abused? After all, it could be used as
another way to drive returns from low-cost capital
without considering the wider community benefits.
If we are handed this responsibility then I am
confident that, just as it will unlock schemes that
would otherwise be unviable, and present us with
great opportunity, so we will demonstrate that we
can act with a level of integrity appropriate to the
responsibility. I can guarantee that the team at Land
Securities with experience of working in partnership
with local authorities since 1946 will ensure that
every decision and action is in the best interests
of all, and that schemes delivered in this way are
the catalysts of further change and development.
(Just as we have achieved in Exeter, Bristol and
many other cities.)
This responsibility for investment of other
people’s money is something we are used to.
Thanks to our experience of the service-charge
reform, it’s an area where the integrity of our
team will best position us for the future.
Richard Akers
Managing Director, Retail
• TIFstandsforTaxIncrementFinancing.
• ATIFallowsthepartfinancingofadevelopmentthroughtheissue
of a bond secured against the tax ‘gain’ (from increased business
rates) that will be created by the completed development.
• TIFshavebeenusedasawayoffinancingurbanregenerationand
community development projects in the US since they were
invented in California in 1952.
• YoucanreadmoreaboutthepotentialapplicationofTIFs
in the UK on the British Property Federation website
(http://snipurl.com/svbva).
What is a TIF?Who says the recession has been all bad news? Richard Akers, MD of Retail at Land Securities, believes that meeting economic challenges head on can lead to improvements in environmental sustainability, rent reform and investment in future shopping centres.
If you wish to discuss any of the
items mentioned in this article
please contact me by email at
St David’s Dewi Sant, Cardiff 21
Ten years of planning and three years of construction all came to fruition at
10.30am on 22 October when the new St David’s Dewi Sant shopping centre
opened for business in Cardiff. As the assembled throng of retailers, local
dignitaries and media called out the final stage of the countdown, retail staff
braced themselves for the first wave of shoppers due to pour in when the main
doors were flung open.
By 10.35am both floors of this flagship development were teeming with
people keen to sample the wares of the 50 or so retailers quick to take up
residence. Particularly those new to Cardiff or Wales, such as Apple, LK Bennett,
Crabtree & Evelyn, Cult, Karen Millen, Pret A Manger, Radley, and Yo! Sushi.
Shoppers were also treated to a five-girl aerial fashion show and ballerinas
on stilts posing for photos. Individual shops staged their own celebrations, too.
The staff at the Apple Store, for example, whooped and cheered the first
thousand customers through their doors, offering each one a free T-shirt.
It was a day of positive messages from every quarter. “The prime location
of St David’s Dewi Sant has rejuvenated this sector of the city,” said Henry
Enos, senior lecturer at Glamorgan University, who specialises in consumer
behaviour. “It’s ideally suited to meet the needs of Cardiff’s consumers.” Open for business
Wales’s finest new shopping centre, St David’s Dewi Sant, opened in Cardiff in late October. Guy Richards witnessed the carnival atmosphere that accompanied it.
Competition 23
It looks amazing from the outside.
But things really start to get
interesting once you step inside
John Lewis’s new Cardiff store.
Berthed like a great, glass luxury
liner, its glazed prow pointing
proudly towards Cardiff’s café
quarter, the new John Lewis store is
stunning, both thanks to its
architecture and its size. It’s John
Lewis’s first store in Wales and, with
a floor space of 280,000 square feet,
its largest outside London.
The architects were Benoy. Their
idea was to create two huge boxes
meeting at angles so that every
aspect of the shop had great visual
impact. “The building is designed
to complement, but stand out from,
the design of St David’s Dewi Sant,
which echoes Cardiff’s Victorian
shopping arcades,” says Dino
Marcangelo, Business Manager New
Shops at John Lewis.
But it’s once you step inside the
huge store that the scope of this
magnificent retail project becomes
apparent. The ‘prow’ – a triangular,
glazed space spanning the shop’s
four floors – initially draws shoppers
into the beauty hall on the ground
level, and opens up three stories of
ceiling space above the Espresso Bar.
Here, shoppers’ eyes are drawn to
what’s known as the ‘shimmer
sculpture’. “It’s a cascade of beads
which mirrors the triangular shape of
the Prow’s apex and catches the
sunlight from its large windows,”
Marcangelo explains.
Much of the glazing of the
windows is printed with a frit
pattern designed by Fusion Glass Ltd
and inspired by traditional Welsh
tapestries. “This not only provides
visual impact, it also reduces sun
glare,” says Marcangelo. “This
improves the building’s energy
efficiency and gives a more
comfortable shopping experience.”
The idea is that customers are
led naturally from one department
of the store to the next. On the
ground floor is the beauty hall;
the first floor features accessories,
fashion, haberdashery and fabrics;
the second floor is given over to
homes and interiors; the third to
nursery, toys, sportswear and
children’s clothing. “Designed with
‘kid appeal’, this floor contains life-
size Harry Potter and Star Wars Lego
models, plus a child-friendly shoe
display,” Marcangelo says.
In an effort to boost its fashion
offer, John Lewis appointed store
designers Dalziel & Pow to create a
luxury look for the store’s fashion
department. Everywhere you look
there are subtle designs aimed
at making the whole shopper
experience more pleasant: the
mannequins, for example, with
their metal frames. Or the counters,
jewellery trees and chandeliers in
the jewellery department. Or the
luxury finish in what’s known as
the “fashion advisory room”.
John Lewis feel its new store is so
impressive that it has been entered
for the Retail Week store design of
the year award.
Never knowingly undersold
The Land Securities Retail competition
Please e-mail answers to:
[email protected] by Friday 29th January
2010. Entrants must be aged 18 or over. UK
residents only. Employees of Land Securities and
Alma Media International and/or their families
are not permitted to enter. Land Securities’
decision is final. For full terms and conditions
e-mail: [email protected]
Simply answer the question above to have the
chance to win £500 of John Lewis vouchers.
The Question: In what year did the first John Lewis store open?
Win £500 to spend at John Lewis
The development has been good news for local job-seekers too, particularly
in these straitened times, by creating around 4,000 posts in retail, catering,
management and security, according to Francis Salway, Chief Executive
of Land Securities.
It’s also come as a welcome boost for the city. “St David’s Dewi Sant is
expected to attract more than £250 million of new spending to Cardiff city
centre each year,” said Rodney Berman, leader of Cardiff City Council. “Cardiff
is now in the top 10 retail destinations in the UK. That’s the difference this
new centre is making to the city.”
Even the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in Wales, some of whose
members were at the heart of the development, has added its blessing. Its
director Cathy McLean said: “The impact of St David’s Dewi Sant on Cardiff will
be immense, with retail tourists coming for the first time and, once they have
sampled it, returning to partake in Cardiff’s other attractions.”
In a similar vein, Marie Fagan, General Manager of the city centre’s only
five-star hotel, the Hilton, stressed how St David’s Dewi Sant would help put
Cardiff on the weekend city-break map. “It will help us as a city to compete
effectively with other key UK cities,” she explained. “It adds another dimension
to what the city has to offer.”
Liz Mihell, Manager of the new John Lewis store, which serves as an anchor
at St David’s Dewi Sant, was equally upbeat. “We had an extremely successful
opening last month,” she said. “The reaction from shoppers has been
outstanding and sales have exceeded expectations.”
The company said takings on the store’s first day were 20 per cent ahead
of target, and while exact figures for the retailers who opened on 22 October
were unavailable at the time of going to press, feedback from them has been
very upbeat.
“Our first day was fantastic. We’re delighted to be in Cardiff,” said Jay
Chapman, Head of Communications at Pret A Manger.
“Amazing,” was the verdict of Kate Basu-Attwood, Store Manager at
LK Bennett. “We’ve had people come in from as far away as Nottingham,
customers who’d normally visit our London store. First day’s takings have
been on target and will be up for the week.”
Gary Thomas, Operations Director for YO! Sushi, said his restaurant had
enjoyed “a fantastic reception”. “Our first day of opening has exceeded our
expectations by 50 per cent.”
So it’s no surprise then that the opinions of the shoppers themselves are
also wholly positive, with declarations such as “What a brilliant place” and
“We love it” among the most common reactions from the 50,000 people
estimated to have passed through the centre’s doors in the first three hours
on that first Thursday.
With more than 30 million visitors expected every year once the centre is
fully established, it looks as if many more shoppers will be bowled over by this
new Welsh retail destination.
“Cardiff is now in the top 10 retail destinations in the UK. That’s the difference this new centre is making to the city.”
St David’s Dewi Sant, Cardiff 25
If you’ve ever seen one of those plate-spinning acts on TV or at
the circus – where the performer has to balance plates on top
of thin wooden poles – then you’ll have some idea of what’s
gone into preparing for the opening of the St David’s Dewi Sant
centre in Cardiff. Only, in this case, there are hundreds of plates
and a whole team of performers spinning them.
As the centre’s director Steven Madeley explained: “Each
member of the management team not only knows whose
responsibilities are whose, but also has a good general overview
of the business, so they’re able to deal with queries outside
of their remit.” That’s a useful – arguably essential – facility
to have in a team of managers who, in this context, are
individually responsible for security and cleaning, marketing,
commercialisation, and retailer liaison.
By the time you read this magazine, the centre will have
opened for business. But at the time of writing, opening day,
October 22, was a little way off, meaning that Madeley and
his team still had a host of issues to manage. “The centre is still
a building site at the moment, so there’s the construction side of
“Carrying over the management team from the original St David’s has been a major plus point for us.The in-house experience we’ve been able to bring has gone a long way.”
things to keep tabs on,” he said. “At the same time, we have loads
of the retailers coming in to set up – and of course each one
thinks they’re the only one in the building.
“And of course we’re in the process of building up our own
security and cleaning teams, about 100 people in all. The security
people, for example, need training in customer service and using
our CCTV systems.”
The project’s schedule left very little room for error. Madeley
said there was a gap of only a few hours between the builders
leaving the site and the shoppers swarming in. So, unsurprisingly,
ask him what his priorities were and this is the response you get:
“They’re all priorities!”
Things were moving so fast in the run-up to the opening, he
said, that the main challenge was keeping everyone up to date
on progress. A key part of his working week were the many
progress meetings, checking what was on track and what wasn’t.
“There’s a kind of ‘steering wheel’ approach to this,” he said,
“where you go round every aspect of the project in turn to make
sure all the lights are still on green, so to speak.”
It’s natural to assume that much of the complexity in the
St David’s Dewi Sant project was down to the sheer size of the
development: 160 stores and 23 restaurants and cafés. Not so,
according to Madeley. Every issue he has had to manage would
still hold true for a smaller development; the issues were just
more involved at St David’s Dewi Sant.
“At the moment though it’s fantastic,” he said. “I get a real kick
out of going on site and seeing how things are progressing from
one day to the next. There’s always something new to see.”
So with that permanent buzz, as the centre grew closer to
completion, was he worried about any post-opening sense of
anti-climax? “It’s true that the daily operation will in a sense
become pretty routine,” he said. “People will come in, work and
shop, then go back home. The challenges change once we are
open – still a lot of work but more focused on the trading
retailers and our customers.”
St David’s Dewi Sant is unusual in that it’s a huge extension –
967,000 sq ft – to an existing centre, of which Madeley was
also the director. But this of course has enabled Madeley and
his team, many of whom also worked at the original St David’s,
to bring their expertise across with them.
“Carrying over the management team from the original St
David’s has been a major plus point for us,” he said. “The in-house
experience we’ve been able to bring has gone a long way.”
This team ethic extends to national level at Land Securities.
Madeley talked of the extended centre team, composed of staff
from Land Securities’ London HQ, as well as experts from other
centres around the UK, all of whom have regularly visited Cardiff
to share their experience. The idea was to cross-fertilise their
knowledge with local knowledge.
There’s nothing unusual in this, Madeley said. In fact the St
David’s Dewi Sant team itself attended the opening of the Cabot
Circus centre in Bristol in September 2008 to gain an insight into
the kind of issues they would face in Cardiff on 22 October.
The great thing about teamwork is that you’re never alone.
Steven Madeley
Centre Director
It’s all about teamwork o
As opening day approaches, things get hectic for the management team at the new St David’s Dewi Sant centre in Cardiff. Guy Richards finds out how the director and his team cope.
International retailers 27
Ronan Faherty
Commercial Director
Land Securities has recruited a big-hitter in international
retail – Sanjay Sharma, previously an International Director at
Karen Millen – to run the venture. Sharma’s role within Brand
Empire is to visit cities across the world and seek out dynamic
retailers with the potential to travel. “We’re interested in
brands that can take on national coverage, not just open one
or two stores” says Faherty.
Clearly the aim is to ensure that exciting new fashion,
footwear and cosmetics brands start off in the right locations.
In the UK, German fashion discounter Takko, for example, would
have a very different target audience to that of upmarket
US lifestyle retailer Anthropologie. Advice on how to market in
different parts of the UK, and inside knowledge about which
schemes offer the most complementary mix of retailers will help
brands gain a solid foothold here.
Matthew Brown is head of research at Echochamber,
specialists in global retail trend-spotting. He believes Brand
Empire could inject much needed energy and originality into
UK shopping districts. “On the global stage the UK is pretty
innovative, but there’s never room for complacency because
British shoppers are always looking for something novel,” he says.
“The cutting-edge brands we are seeing overseas have the
potential to deliver that desired vitality, bringing with them
innovative ideas for store design and merchandising, even a fresh
approach to customer service. This initiative to welcome others
into the market is to be applauded.”
There are countless inspiring retail formats in different corners
of the world, and, according to Faherty, these will give British
shopping centres a more competitive edge. “The timing is
particularly good now as the recession has been a catalyst for
creativity in retail,” he says.
He hopes the first few names taken on by Brand Empire will
be opening their doors to the public starting in the new year.
Land Securities feels there are a number of exciting brands in affluent countries like Brazil, Australia, Russia and Japan that would be a real hit with the British public.
From Aldo to Zara, from Abercrombie & Fitch to Uniqlo, new
brands launching into the UK market have always managed to
spark fresh interest in our shopping centres. Shoppers love the
exoticism of an unfamiliar brand while domestic retailers benefit
from increased footfall and sales when names such as Banana
Republic or Urban Outfitters set up shop nearby.
But are we doing enough to encourage international brands
into the country? And when they do come, are they settling into
the most appropriate centres and reaching the right audiences?
Land Securities feels there are a number of exciting brands in
affluent countries like Brazil, Australia, Russia and Japan that would
be a real hit with the British public. The trouble is, when entering
the UK market, they need a helping hand.
For this very reason Land Securities has established a
new company called Brand Empire whose job is to identify
international retail brands, advise on demographics and suitable
locations across the UK, and help with store openings through
a partnership approach. “We’ve looked closely at the barriers to
entry into the UK,” says Ronan Faherty, Commercial Director at
Land Securities. “We have valuable knowledge to offer brands that
are big in their part of the world, but unfamiliar with this market.
We were planning this venture long before the credit crunch.
It’s very much a long-term strategy.”
Incoming companies often lack local knowledge. They will also
need insights into leasing, and guidance on how to secure space.
Faherty stresses that Brand Empire will benefit the entire British
shopping industry, not just Land Securities’ retail portfolio. “The
brands we’ll be dealing with will want to consider opening right
across the country, so this needs to be all-inclusive,” he says.
“We are already talking to other shopping-centre owners and
developers about how the initiative can help them too.
The reaction has been very positive.”
Faherty continues ‘’For our existing retailers this is all about
complementing the existing retail mix, and not competing.
New international brands will not be getting preferential
treatment into the UK market, what they are really getting
through a partnership approach is our expertise and knowledge.’’
Sanjay Sharma
Chief Executive Brand Empire
Come to Britain
We could soon see a number of exciting foreign retailers in the UK thanks to a new Land Securities venture called Brand Empire. Alison Clements finds out how it works.
Tate Modern
Leon
One New Change
Bankside
Mix
The work-shop balance 29
Oxfordshire Fields
A (retail) day
in the life How do busy employees combine work and shopping?
David Atcherley-Symes, Retail Manager London Portfolio
at Land Securities, talks us through his typical day. Millennium
Bridge
St Paul’s
Cathedra
l
11.30amQuick stroll over the Millennium Bridge to Bankside Mix, our scheme behind the Tate Modern. I meet the manager of an Italian restaurant who’s launching a new menu. He has had a hard time over the last year but is already seeing an increase in sales after our ‘Great British Summer’ marketing campaign which televised the Ashes and Wimbledon on a huge screen mounted on the side of a caravan.Afterwards I look at the vacant units we have there. Filling one won’t be a problem as it overlooks the planned extension of the Tate Modern. The other big one will need some thought, however.
Back over the Millennium Bridge and through St Paul’s Churchyard to New Street Square. I grab a late sandwich at Natural Kitchen. It is quiet at this time of the afternoon, but the manager seems more than happy with the new store. I suppose the 5,000 lawyers and insolvency accountants are busy working in their offices. Then I check my emails and see I have a lease to sign for a café. We have gone for an independent rather than a chain. I feel sure it was the right decision and the shop fit-out looks great.
2 .30am
Park House
Natural KitchenPret A
Manger
6amAlarm as usual. No ironed shirts, so I fetch the ironing board which accidentally wakes the dog. Then I remember the iron is on the blink, so I ponder non-iron shirts. That gets me thinking whether wearing a Lewin shirt with a Hermes tie is the same as dressing up a Primark top with a Prada belt. Sadly I own no Hermes ties.
7.45amAfter an early train I’m at my desk having
already tested the Pret A Manger staff. Why are
they never grumpy at this hour? My first job
is to think about a new iron. Perhaps I can visit
John Lewis at lunchtime. No, instead I settle for
Argos.co.uk so I can have it delivered. Then I
reminisce about how we used to actually go
shopping for irons and how I really don’t miss
retail parks on Saturday mornings.
4pmI walk back to the Land Securities office via Leon restaurant for
a quick discussion with one of their directors about trade and a
crazy new concept which could work well on a couple of our sites.
Then I weigh up the pros and cons of risky new operations versus
staid safe brands. I mentally settle at 60:40 in favour of the nutters.
.30amFirst stop is a new retailer meeting at our new scheme, One New Change, in the City of London. I try to get to all these meetings to see how retailers are feeling about trade in London. This time it is an accessories retailer who also wants a unit at Cardinal Place, in Victoria, another of our London schemes. Glad I went along.After the meeting I climb to the sixth floor of One New Change to get a first view of the roof terrace overlooking St Paul’s Cathedral. It’s stunning. You get a real feel of how the restaurant and public space will work up here.
SuperdryBack in the office, I pack my laptop and head out
again. Friday evenings I often spend wandering the
streets, especially around Covent Garden, looking
at any new retail fascias. I wanted to see the
Superdry unit just off Seven Dials and COS on Long
Acre. I then jump on the bus down Oxford Street,
spotting the Land Securities unit with the new
Currys refit, which looks great.
I then pass our site at Park House, opposite
Selfridges. From the top of the bus I can see
the giant Fiat 500 with its marketing circus.
For Christmas this will be a German market;
after that we can start working on the site again.
At Primark I contemplate getting off the bus and
looking for a non-iron shirt but don’t want to wake
the lump sleeping beside me.
5pm
7pmI’m on the train and at my emails for an hour before driving home across the Oxfordshire fields as the sun goes down. I might go into Oxford tomorrow for a bit of retail therapy. Haven’t been shopping for a while.
David Atcherley-Symes
Retail Manager
The retail management team 31
The retail therapists
What are the burning issues for the team in charge of retail at Land Securities’ key shopping centres? Five of the top asset managers explain.
“Since the start of this year we’ve done nearly 500
individual lettings and lease renewals. That’s around
150 every three months.”
Ashley Blake is upbeat about Land Securities’
retail portfolio, the sector he directs. He joined the
company at the start of this year, but already he
and his team have made great strides. All this despite
the worst economic downturn in living memory.
So what’s the secret to their success? Here they
discuss five key areas where they believe they’ve
been most effective.
1 Tackling retail voids
With huge retailers such as Woolworths and Zavvi
going under, looming gaps have appeared in British
high streets and shopping centres. Land Securities
have been quick to fill these gaps.
Ailish Christian, Portfolio Director South, points
to the Land Securities centres at Corby, Lewisham
and Stratford as good examples of where the
retailer turnaround has been lightning quick.
“Within a couple of months of the demise of
Woolworths, all three were trading with new
retailers,” she says. Corby, for example, took on
Au Naturel and Ethel Austin, while Lewisham
welcomed H&M, and Stratford saw a new 99p
Stores open up – now one of their top performing
stores in the UK.
There were Zavvi stores in Liverpool’s Clayton
Square, Portsmouth’s Gunwharf Quays, Exeter’s
Princesshay and Bristol’s Cabot Circus. Osprey and
HMV have filled two of them, and the other two
are close to finalising deals.
“Filling voids is crucial for us,” says Ashley.
“If a big frontage goes dark, as we say in the
business, that can really suck the life out of a
whole shopping centre.”
2 Shopper profiling
Land Securities have devised an effective way
of dividing their tenants’ customers into different
groups, according to the way they shop. With
help from several retail research companies they
have identified five key groups of shoppers:
no frills cost-cutters, sensible quality-seekers,
complex cosmopolitans, aspiring spenders and
designer junkies.
“We use this to target which tenants we want to
attract,” explains Deepan Khiroya, Portfolio Director
Factory Outlet Centres. “We work out which kind
of shoppers are in our catchment areas and we
target retailers accordingly.”
Ashley stresses how useful this shopper profiling
can be. “It means we can provide shops that the
local population really want,” he says. “We may
discover we have too many fast-fashion outlets in
a particular centre, for example, when in fact what
we really need is more sensible style retailers.”
Shopper profiling has also helped Land Securities
target their advertising more effectively. In
Sunderland, for example, the company realised that
one single TV network, Tyne Tees, covered the exact
region they needed to market to. They found they
could afford to launch a very inexpensive TV
campaign and target their customers precisely. “You
simply couldn’t do that in for Gunwharf Quays in
Portsmouth,” Ashley adds, “because you’d have to
cover three or four different TV regions, which
would be much too expensive.”
3 Direct engagement with retailers
“All of us in the retail team have close relationships
with our retailers,” explains Suzi Clay, Portfolio
Director Major Joint Ventures. “We have regular
face-to-face meetings with them and nurture
those relationships.”
Suzi used to work in retail herself, at B&Q, so she
can assess the situation from both the tenant’s and
the landlord’s point of view. According to Ashley,
it’s this personal touch that keeps the relationships
strong. “It’s not that we’re going soft on our
retailers,” he says. “But we understand we must
constantly engage with them, and work with them,
particularly if they have issues we can solve.”
To understand retailers better, Land Securities
have even been shadowing them at work. Ailish, for
example, spent a day on the shop floor at House of
Fraser. Ashley shadowed the operations director at
John Lewis in Watford for a day. Others from the
department have spent time at Next on London’s
Oxford Street. “It’s all about creating long-term
relationships,” stresses Ashley. “If we just take the
hard, old-fashioned landlord approach, we’ll end up
with more voids and no repeat business.”
4 Repositioning and refurbishing
Land Securities are in the fortunate position
of having what Ashley describes as a “very well
capitalised business”. “We have a fantastic balance
sheet and can afford refurb spend to improve our
centres. When we buy a centre, we have a business
plan and equity ready to improve that centre.
That doesn’t just mean entrances and flooring.
We may also add new space, help tenants expand,
or reconfigure centres to allow new tenants to
come in. Shopping centres are live assets and they
have to be constantly upgraded.”
Aberdeen’s Bon Accord Quarter is a good
example of this. Thanks to Land Securities’ upgrade
of the St Nicholas shopping centre, as well as
Hammerson’s Union Square, much of the Scottish
city is now benefitting from a facelift. “At St
Nicholas we’ve now built quite a fashion hub,” says
Ashley. “There’s Topshop Topman, River Island, Kurt
Geiger, Phase Eight, Karen Millen, Oasis, Warehouse,
Coast and the biggest Next in Scotland. These are
all massive footfall generators.”
Other centres to benefit from refurbishment
include London’s Lewisham Centre, Livingston’s
The Centre and Bristol’s Cabot Circus.
5 Creating destinations
Adventure golf at Cabot Circus, surfing and bowling
at Gunwharf Quays, laser-gun games at Corby…
shopping centres all over the UK are now offering
much more than simple shopping. There are
cinemas, casinos, restaurants, cafes, nightclubs,
ice rinks – all encouraging shoppers to spend
more time, and of course more money.
Restaurants and cafes are a good example.
“Catering increases the dwell time of shoppers
and ensures they stay at the centre beyond
lunchtime and into the afternoon,” explains
Deepan. Evening leisure facilities also help drive
trade, even if they operate long after most of the
shops have shut. “At night you get people coming
to the centre for the cinema or a restaurant,”
explains Ashley. “They may never have been there
before to shop. Then they think ‘Maybe I’ll come
back during the day and check it out’. It’s all about
ensuring our shopping centres are attractive
destinations in their own right.”
The strongest assets
Land Securities’ Retail
Portfolio Management
team oversees the
company’s shopping
centres, factory outlets
high street shops and
hotels. But who are the
faces behind the names?
Ashley Blake
Head of Retail
Portfolio Management
Responsible for 23
shopping centres, four
designer outlets, three
retail blocks and a team
of 23 asset managers
and support staff. In all
that’s 11.8 million square
feet of property worth
£2.6 billion.
Top right
Ailish Christian
Portfolio Director, South
Responsible for the
centres in Stratford,
Lewisham, Welwyn
Garden City, Islington,
Clapham, Wandsworth,
Shepherd’s Bush, Notting
Hill Gate, Corby,
Worcester, Cambridge
and Salisbury.
Top left
Suzi Clay
Portfolio Director,
Major Joint Ventures
Responsible for centres in
Cardiff, Bristol, Exeter,
Taplow and Birmingham,
most of which feature
partnerships.
Bottom left
Gerald Jennings
Portfolio Director,
North and Scotland
Responsible for centres in
Sunderland and York,
three centres in Leeds,
and two in Liverpool.
Bottom right
Deepan Khiroya
Portfolio Director,
Factory Outlet Centres
Responsible for factory
outlets in Portsmouth,
Hatfield, Livingston,
as well as Accor and
Novotel hotels.
Middle right
Katherine Armstead
Portfolio Manager,
Scotland
Responsible for centres
in Livingston, Aberdeen
and Glasgow.
It could end up being the country’s largest work of art. There are plans for the hoarding along
one section of the construction site at Leeds’ new shopping centre, TrinityLeeds, to feature an
industrial-size scroll of paper, hundreds of metres long, onto which artists both professional and
amateur will be encouraged to express themselves. Although council permission hasn’t yet been
granted, it’s hoped the hoarding on Leeds’s Albion Street, along one boundary of Land Securities’
new one million sq ft retail and leisure development, will be adorned with a blank, rolling canvas.
Artists and community groups would be invited to decorate the scroll of paper as they see fit.
“Working with leading art directors Six (www.madebysix.com), we would invite artists to
come and be part of the UK’s largest piece of art,” explains Claire Reynolds, of TrinityLeeds
marketing team. “They could range from well-known artists, or local artists in and around Leeds,
to community groups, universities and schools. Ultimately we’re looking to engage with the
community, re-invigorate Albion Street and turn it into a destination in its own right.”
TrinityLeeds is due to open for business in 2012.
Arts in the city
Corporate social responsibility 33
34 Retail Portfolio Retail Portfolio 35
Location Property name Area sq m (sq ft) Principal contact Phone No.
Location Property name Area sq m (sq ft) Principal contact Phone number Location Property name Area sq m (sq ft) Principal contact Phone number
Shopping Centres Retail Parks
Location Property name Area sq m (sq ft) Principal contact Phone No.
Location Property name Area sq m (sq ft) Principal contact Phone number Location Property name Area sq m (sq ft) Principal contact Phone number
Outlets Developments
Aberdeen Bon Accord/St Nicholas 47,844 (515,000) Katherine Armstead 0141 331 4409
Birmingham Priory Square 26,013 (279,900) Charles Clarke 020 7747 2318
Bristol Cabot Circus 135,000 (1,453,000) Rob Callaghan 029 7024 5414
Cambridge Christ’s Lane* 7,282 (78,350) Andrew Rawlings 020 7747 2336
Cardiff St David’s Shopping Centre 39,735 (427,000) Rob Callaghan 020 7024 5414
Corby Town Centre/Willow Place 68,740 (740,000) Andrew Rawlings 020 7747 2336
Exeter Princesshay 49,256 (530,000) Lucy Lilley 020 7024 5488
Glasgow Buchanan Galleries 57,600 (620,000) Katherine Armstead 0141 331 4409
Leeds Leeds Shopping Plaza 53,670 (557,500) Jonathan Buckle 0113 261 5363
Leeds White Rose 63,170 (680,000) James Larmuth 0113 386 2177
Liverpool Clayton Square 6,553 (180,000) James Larmuth 0113 386 2177
Liverpool St Johns Centre 33,450 (360,000) James Larmuth 0113 386 2177
Livingston The Centre 88,720 (950,000) Katherine Armstead 0141 331 4409
London Shopstop, Clapham 4,170 (44,884) Ailish Christian 020 7024 5066
London N1, Islington 13,006 (140,000) Ailish Christian 020 7024 5066
London Lewisham Centre 34,523 (371,500) Tom Venner 020 7024 5196
London W12, Shepherds Bush 27,127 (291,900) Andrew Rawlings 020 7747 2336
London Stratford Shopping Centre 31,224 (336,000) Tom Venner 020 7024 5196
London Southside, Wandsworth 49,239 (530,000) Ailish Christian 020 7024 5066
Salisbury The Maltings 8,920 (96,022) Anna-Louise Lancaster 020 7024 5411
Sunderland The Bridges 47,840 (515,000) Jonathan Buckle 0113 261 5363
Worcester Cathedral Plaza 19,463 (210,000) Andrew Rawlings 020 7747 2336
* Nine stores only
Glasgow Buchanan Galleries 65,000 (700,000) Nick Davis 020 7024 5203
Leeds Trinity Leeds 92,900 (1,000,000) Bob De Barr 020 7024 5470
Bexhill-On-Sea Ravenside Retail & Leisure Park 24,131 (259,750) Hermione Mackrill 020 7024 5486
Blackpool Blackpool Retail Park 12,782 (137,583) Jack Busby 020 7024 5487
Bracknell The Peel Centre 15,384 (165,592) Nick Duffield 020 7024 5485
Chadwell Heath Goodmayes Retail Park 9,230 (99,000) Jack Busby 020 7024 5487
Chester Greyhound Retail Park 18,859 (203,000) Hermione Mackrill 020 7024 5486
Chesterfield Ravenside Retail Park 9,615 (103,500) Nick Duffield 020 7024 5485
Derby Meteor Centre 16,920 (182,130) Jack Busby 020 7024 5487
Dundee Kingsway Retail Park 27,768 (298,900) Jack Busby 020 7024 5487
Gateshead Team Valley Retail World 35,083 (377,650) Nick Duffield 020 7024 5485
Livingston Almondvale Retail, South&West 35,284 (379,800) Nick Duffield 020 7024 5485
Milford Haven Havenshead Retail Park 6,910 (74,389) Jack Busby 020 7024 5487
Northampton Nene Valley Retail Park 13,657 (147,000) Hermione Mackrill 020 7024 5486
Poole Commerce Centre 19,328 (208,011) Nick Duffield 020 7024 5485
Taplow The Bishop Centre 12,810 (137,895) Charles Clarke 020 7747 2318
Thanet Westwood Cross 44,129 (475,000) Hermione Mackrill 020 7024 5486
West Thurrock Lakeside Retail Park 35,000 (376,778) Hermione Mackrill 020 7024 5486
Workington Derwent, Derwent Howe 13,991 (150,600) Jack Busby 020 7024 5487
Hatfield The Galleria 29,729 (320,000) Deepan Khiroya 020 7024 5436
Livingston Designer Outlet Centre 26,790 (288,300) Deepan Khiroya 020 7024 5436
Portsmouth Gunwharf Quays 39,484 (425,000) Deepan Khiroya 020 7024 5436
1 Million Sq.Ft.100% Prime LocationIn The Heart Of The City
Leeds’ Premier Retail Destination
A development by: In association with:
www.trinityleeds.com
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