Shopping Centre April Magazine 2017

The business of retail destinations

www.shopping-centre.co.uk

April 2017 • £8.00

Trick of the light Is this the future of out-of-home advertising?

14 Commercialisation

Digital advertising is opening up new revenue streams

20 Customer Service Disability-friendly centres chase the 'purple pound'

24 SCMC Report

Full coverage from Brighton of SCMC 2017

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SHOPPING CENTRE APRIL 2017

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CONTENTS

Editor Graham Parker 07956 231078 gparker@55north.com

Editor’s letter

Editorial Assistant Iain Hoey 0141 222 5385 ihoey@55north.com Sales Manager Trudy Whiston 01293 416090 twhiston@55north.com Events Sales Manager Graham Harvey 01474 247032 gharvey@55north.com Senior Designer Richard Chaudhry 0141 222 5300 rchaudhry@55north.com Designer Lisa Deakin 0141 222 5388 ldeakin@55north.com Managing Director Antony Begley 0141 222 5380 abegley@55north.com Editorial Board Carl Foreman, Moorgarth; Byron Lewis, Mall Solutions Europe; Andrew McCall, The ROI Team; Howard Morgan, RealService; John Prestwich, Montagu Evans;, James Taylor, Workman; David Tudor-Morgan, British Land No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the publishers. JLD Media is operated by 55 North Ltd under licence from Stephens & George Magazines Ltd. The Publishers accept no responsibility for any statements made in signed contributions or in those reproduced from other sources, nor for claims made in any advertisements.

Shopping Centre is available on subscription. UK & Ireland £96; Overseas £150.

This issue is crammed with coverage of last month’s Shopping Centre Management Conference in Brighton. I hope it captures some of the atmosphere of what was a really lively event. Since Shopping Centre revived the

All rights reserved © 55 North Ltd 2017

Graham Parker Editor Shopping Centre

NEWS & ANALYSIS 05 06 07 10

C&R buys back the Exchange Anchors in place for new Telford mall Council funds Barnsley scheme White Rose in Leeds turns 20 Page 22

FEATURES 14 20 24

ISSN 0964-1793 | Printed by Stephens & George Ltd

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The second is that the social side of sustainability is finally coming to the fore. Changing light bulbs and harvesting rainwater has been an easy win and some centres have been guilty of ‘greenwashing’ – proclaiming green credentials that are only skin-deep. Ensuring centres are welcoming to all, regardless of their abilities, is far more challenging but ultimately far more rewarding.

CONTENTS

Shopping Centre is published monthly.

Shopping Centre, 55 North Ltd, 19 Waterloo Street, Glasgow, G2 6AY

event back in 2011 it has become a fixture in the retail calendar, and the partnership with Revo for the past four years has only added to the momentum.

Two themes stood out for me.

One is that the war between online and physical retail that has preoccupied the industry since the turn of the century seems finally to have reached a truce. Pure-play online traders are recognising that nothing beats face-to-face interaction with customers when it comes to building brand loyalty and an emotional connection with the product.

Commercialisation – Digital screens are generating new revenue streams for owners.

Customer Service – Catering for a range of disabilities can make a centre more welcoming to all.

SCMC Report – All the debate and celebration from the 2017 Shopping Centre Management Conference in Brighton.

REGULARS 20 47 47

Page 40

Data – Retail facts & figures People – New apprentices for intu Moves – All the latest job moves

Join our Shopping Centre Linkedin group Follow us on Twitter @scnewsfeed

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NEWS

C&R buys back the Exchange Capital & Regional has bought the Exchange centre in Ilford, east London, from a Meyer Bergman fund for £78m, reflecting a net initial yield of 6.70 per cent.

C&R said the purchase is in line with its strategy of selectively acquiring dominant local shopping centres that provide the opportunity of accelerating income and capital growth by utilising the company’s asset management platform and expertise.

The Exchange centre is located opposite Ilford train station which will be rebuilt ahead of the opening of Crossrail in 2019. It has three trading levels with 77 units providing 300,000 sq ft of lettable space and a multi-storey car park with over 1,000 spaces. The scheme is anchored

by Debenhams and Marks & Spencer with other retailers including H&M, Next, River Island, Sports Direct, TK Maxx and Wilko.

Chief executive Hugh Scott-Barrett said: "The acquisition provides us with an opportunity to redeploy quickly the capital released from our two recent successful disposals into an investment which offers strong income and capital growth prospects and dominates the retail offer in a large and growing cosmopolitan East London town.

"The Exchange is a centre we know well having previously been owned within The Mall. We see significant opportunities for leisure and residential development supported by an ambitious local authority that is keen to facilitate investment in the area."

Brands circle Golden Square LaSalle Investment Management has added five retailers to Golden Square in Warrington, including Foot Locker, Smiggle and Pandora.

Foot Locker has taken 2,800 sq ft, Smiggle 1,081 sq ft, regional jeweller Mococo 1,700 sq ft, HMV 10,510 sq ft and Pandora has doubled its unit size to 1,163 sq ft. National restaurant chain Prezzo also joined the scheme with a 5,600sq ft unit, as did fashion retailer Select taking 5,133 sq ft, while Millets upsized to 1,983 sq ft. Existing tenants Swarovski, Schuh, Starbucks, H Samuel, and Sayers the Bakers also extended their leases, recently joined by Costa and Claire’s Accessories. www.shopping-centre.co.uk

Golden Square is the prime retail location in Warrington. The centre has more than 800,000 sq ft of top retail outlets with a multitude of brands including Debenhams, M&S, Primark, H&M, Next, Topshop, River Island, JD Sports and Boots.

LaSalle national director Gavin Ingram said: “There are a further 18 deals which are currently in the hands of solicitors, with everything from new leases and renewals to retailers moving to bigger premises. Looking to the future, we are in discussions with a number of global retailer brands and are also further developing the food and drink offering of the scheme.”

Stoke’s Unity Walk approved Stoke-on-Trent City Council has approved Realis Estates’ planning application for the redevelopment of the former bus station and old East West Centre in Hanley with a 435,000-sq ft mixed-use scheme.

The Benoy-designed retail-led development will link the new city centre bus station, which has already been completed, with Parliament Row and the rest of the city’s retail offer.

Pre-lettings have already been signed with Marks & Spencer for 50,000 sq ft and Next for 26,000 sq ft, while The Light has signed for a 10-screeem IMAXanchored multiplex and the developer says discussions are progressing well with other retailers, restaurants and cafes.

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NEWS

Debenhams starts Stevenage shopfit Debenhams has started the fitout of its new flagship store at the Roaring Meg retail and leisure park in Stevenage. The 100,000sq ft store received planning permission from Stevenage Borough Council in April 2014 and construction of the two-storey store, which is due to open in summer 2017, is complete. Phil Huby of landlord Aberdeen Asset Management said: “We look forward to introducing a whole set of new retailers to Roaring Meg as well as an enhancement of our food and beverage options.”

Tristan buys nine out-of-town parks Tristan Capital Partners has bought a portfolio of nine welllocated retail parks across the UK for £245m on behalf of Curzon Capital Partners IV, from a fund advised by Brockton Capital. The parks comprise a total of 1.2m sq ft.

The space is currently 97 per cent occupied by tenants and provides for a WALT in excess of 8 years.

Savills advised Curzon Capital Partners IV on the purchase and Savills Investment Management has been retained to continue managing the properties.

Hammerson signs Rugby pre-lets Hammerson has signed leading homeware brands to the first four units of the nine-unit Elliott’s Field shopping park extension in Rugby.

DFS and Dwell will occupy 15,000 sq ft units; Oak Furniture Land and Sofology have each taken 10,000 sq ft; and Tapi will have an 8,000sq ft store. All are on ten-year leases.

SHOPPING CENTRE APRIL 2017

Anchors in place for new Telford fashion mall

Sovereign Centros and Orion Capital Partners have accelerated plans for a new fashion mall at Telford shopping centre by signing major pre-lets with Next upsizing to a 30,000-sq ft store and New Look to a 16,000-sq ft store on new 10-year leases.

The fashion mall will see the redevelopment and extension of the New Row and New Street malls, retaining House of Fraser as the anchor as well as

existing tenants Zara and River Island. A newly created link will greatly improve shopper circulation and create new stores to meet modern fashion retailer requirements and a number of other pre-leasing discussions are in hand. The new development will open in Autumn 2018 alongside a new bus station facility.

The fashion mall is one of three ongoing development schemes which will transform the 1.2 million-sq ft centre. The leisure development, known as Southern Quarter, will open its doors for Easter 2017 and building will commence for the Northern Quarter development, to be anchored by a mainstream supermarket chain, in summer 2017.

First brands sign at Bruntwood's University Green in Manchester Bruntwood and The University of Manchester have announced the first retail and leisure signings at the recently launched University Green, which forms part of the University’s £1bn campus masterplan and redevelopment.

Academic and general bookshop, Blackwell’s, is the first confirmed tenant, taking a 6,300-sq ft store.

It is joined by Manchester’s award winning artisan coffee house, Takk, which will open a 1,500-sq ft café. Completing the first wave of signings is a new 2,500- sq ft Pret A Manger. All three will open in Summer 2018 shortly after completion of the scheme.

When complete next year the

scheme will provide 40,000 sq ft of retail and leisure space across 12 units each with double-height glazed frontages. Complementing the redevelopment of University Green will be a 210-bed Crowne Plaza Hotel and 116-room Staybridge Suites, both opening

at the end of 2017. Over 60,000 people are currently employed in the area and this is expected to grow to over 75,000 by 2020.

Metis Real Estate Advisors represented Bruntwood.

SP Associates represented Blackwell’s.

www.shopping-centre.co.uk

NEWS

Council funds Barnsley scheme Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council and its development manager, Queensberry, have announced £70m of funding for the second phase of Barnsley town centre’s regeneration, which encompasses The Glass Works shopping centre. The Glass Works, the new name given to the town centre development, will provide 590,000 sq ft of retail and leisure offerings. These will include a range of new shops, restaurants, multiplex cinema and bowling alley.

Queensberry announced that the first occupiers will be Cineworld and Superbowl UK. Cineworld has agreed a 20-year lease for a 13-screen multiplex cinema and Superbowl UK has taken 18,000 sq ft, also on a 20-year lease.

In addition to bowling, Superbowl UK offer Laser Quest and a Crazy Club soft play area.

Barnsley Council Leader Cllr Sir Stephen Houghton said: “This has been a priority for the council for many years now and we are finally moving forward and giving Barnsley what it deserves; a vibrant town centre. We haven’t

taken this decision lightly; we’re confident that it is the right thing to do and will contribute towards building a thriving economy."

The scheme is scheduled for completion in May 2020.

Victoria Square reshuffles Plans submitted for Woking Shopping has relocated several key tenants in 15,000 sq ft of floorspace, clearing units that will now be demolished to facilitate the new Victoria Square development.

Largest of the moves is Boots. The health & beauty brand is moving to a recently renovated 8,000-sq ft site in Bandstand mall in the Peacocks centre.

This move is temporary as once the development works are completed, Boots will be returning to Wolsey Place to a new purpose-built store of 27,000-sq ft.

Boots Opticians is also taking a separate 1,500-sq ft store on the Bandstand Mall while Bayfield’s Opticians, The Works, Dr & Herbs, Café Americano and Greggs have also been decanted.

The development of Victoria Square includes the creation of 125,000 sq ft of new retail floorspace anchored by a 50,000-sq ft Marks & Spencer store; a new Hilton hotel, 390 residential apartments in two towers of 30 and 34 storeys; space for a medical centre; 284 additional car parking spaces, and two new public plazas. www.shopping-centre.co.uk

Trinity Walk extension

Sovereign Centros and Orion Capital Partners have submitted a planning application for the extension of Trinity Walk, Wakefield. The redevelopment of the Market Hall site would create a new leisure destination for the city, known as Trinity Walk Leisure.

The 45,000-sq ft plans include a nine-screen cinema – to be operated by The Light cinema group – up to eight new restaurants and cafes, a new landscaped public space and an improved entrance from the bus station.

Sovereign Centros director Max La Frenais said: “Trinity Walk Leisure will deliver an exciting new leisure destination for the city. Our research shows that the mix of uses will bring new spending into the city centre and that there is capacity for a second cinema in Wakefield. We hope to attract a blend of family friendly and exciting leisure brands, many of which will be new to the area.”

Savills and Angermann Goddard Loyd are appointed as leasing agents.

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ANALYSIS

Hammerson launches Net Positive strategy Hammerson has become the first real estate company globally to launch a comprehensive Net Positive strategy covering both environmental and socio-economic policies.

The strategy, which will be delivered through Hammerson’s existing Positive Places sustainability platform, will set stretching targets across four key areas of the business with the aim of having a net positive impact across its pan European portfolio by 2030.

Hammerson’s objective is to be Net Positive in four areas where it has the greatest material impacts and therefore the greatest opportunities to drive change.

This strategy is in line with Hammerson’s mission to create retail destinations that deliver value for all stakeholders and create positive and sustainable long term impacts for generations to come.

Carbon emissions are a key measure and Hammerson has pledged to reduce all carbon emissions from public mall and back-of-house space, corporate operations and business travel. It will also seek to influence carbon emissions from tenant -procured energy; embodied carbon in construction materials and energy used during construction.

By 2030, Hammerson aims to remove a total of 757,200 tonnes of carbon emissions from its operations under its Net Positive targets, which is equivalent to the annual carbon emissions of 85,000 households.

It is already taking steps to achieve this through efficiency projects such as LED lighting installation, efficient switching systems and good management and by installing renewable generating systems on existing assets and new developments, maximising the use of energy generated on site. Future developments will be designed to minimise operational carbon emissions and Hammerson has pledged to purchase 100 per cent renewable energy for the portfolio wherever possible.

The new strategy also addresses resource www.shopping-centre.co.uk

use with the aim of reducing all operational and development waste, including tenant activities. Hammerson promises to minimise waste generated on operational assets and maximise the recycling and reuse of waste materials on site. It will also work with contractors to minimise construction and demolition waste from its developments and maximise reuse and recycling while managing waste out of developments during the design phase.

Going forward, climate change is going to put water resources under growing pressure, so the policy aims to reduce the amount of water used in common parts and tenant areas, as well as water consumed during construction activity.

New buildings are being designed to need less water and Hammerson will invest in water harvesting and recycling technologies wherever possible. The company also intends to identify projects that either replenish water resources or recycle waste water to offset drinking water consumption.

The fourth pillar of the Net Positive strategy addresses socio-economic impacts such as employment and skills; health and wellbeing and encouraging local investment and

enterprise. Hammerson will invest in jobs, skills, training and enterprise programmes across its portfolio and development activities and set community engagement plans for each asset that address issues identified as relevant to the local community.

CEO David Atkins said: “The ambitious targets demonstrate our commitment to drive change and represent the logical next step for Positive Places. Over the past ten years, our industry-leading sustainability strategy has achieved significant carbon and energy savings and delivered meaningful socio-economic impacts for the local communities in which we operate. Net Positive will allow us to go even further.

“Working with our retail tenants, contractors, consultants and suppliers we are already delivering projects that contribute to this commitment. This year, we expect to deliver our first carbon neutral development and have 100 per cent clean electricity contracts across our UK and Ireland shopping centre portfolios.

JLL Upstream Sustainability Services provided consultancy support, data analysis and advice for Hammerson’s Net Positive initiative."

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ANALYSIS

Hardy perennial March 2017 marked the 20th year of Land Securities’ White Rose shopping centre in Leeds. So how has it withstood the test of time?

Launched in March 1997, White Rose has seen numerous expansion and redevelopments over the years to keep abreast of changing consumer tastes. Now, the scheme is introducing an 11-screen Cineworld IMAX cinema, six big brand restaurants, a play area and an outdoor live events space.

Before – White Rose’s atrium in 1997

White Rose is anchored by Marks and Spencer, Debenhams, Next and Primark. Other retailers include River Island, Zara, Superdry, Lush Cosmetics, H&M, Boux Avenue and Disney and the latest arrivals include Whittakers, Pizza Express, Tessuti, Fuel and Smiggle.

Over the years White Rose has acquired a reputation for unparalleled brand retention, a high percentage of retailer upsizes and low void rates. Demonstrating retailer confidence and commitment to the centre, 10 leading name brands have traded at the scheme since its launch in 1997, including Millie’s Cookies, Debenhams, Boots and Sainsbury’s.

Rob Jewell, portfolio director at Land Securities, said: “We are tremendously proud to be celebrating the 20th anniversary of White Rose. This is also the year we will see our leisure and entertainment extension open, adding yet more exciting dimensions to the scheme.

The centre has always been popular with families in Leeds, and the added leisure element will continue to grow our appeal to all generations. We are actively engaging and implementing initiatives to maintain the centre’s importance and central role in the Leeds community and Land Securities’ retail portfolio.”

WHITE ROSE TIMELINE 1997 Today – White Rose’s atrium in 2017

White Rose opens

2004 First ‘Music Bug’ pod introduced in any mall by Music Zone 2007

M&S upsizes into Woolworth’s 30,000-sq ft unit

2014 £7m project to create new 14,000-sq ft F&B offer, The

Balcony, introducing Prezzo, Wok‘n’Go, Handmade

Burger Co. and Frankie & Benny’s, as well as

renovating 17 existing eateries, including Nando’s and McDonald’s 2016 Work starts on 65,000-sq ft leisure-led extension

with 11-screen Cineworld IMAX multiplex, six new

restaruants, a bespoke play area and outdoor event space

SHOPPING CENTRE APRIL 2017

2017

Next upsizes into old BHS space

2017

Leisure extension 100 per cent let with Five Guys and Limeyard taking the last two units www.shopping-centre.co.uk

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MORE THAN

MEETS

THE EYE SHOPPING CENTRE APRIL 2017

Screen technology continues to get bigger and better – but new innovations could really mean that the sky is the limit.

P

iccadilly Circus in London, Times Square in New York, Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo, Causeway Bay in Hong Kong – just a small selection of world-famous shopping destinations with one common feature: digital signage. As if computers and phones did not satisfy the human need for screen time, technologically controlled billboards are inescapable forms of advertising in almost any retail location.

Earlier this year, Unibail-Rodamco improved the shopping www.shopping-centre.co.uk

COMMERCIALISATION

experience at CentrO Mall in Oberhausen, Germany, by adding 10 curved LED displays. Daktronics designed, manufactured and installed all of the displays to provide flexibility in content from advertising messages and marketing campaigns to ambient lighting and full feature clips on nearly 250 sq m (2,700 sq ft) of digital canvas.

"Consumers expect more from shopping centres today than a mere retail destination," says Olivier Nougarou, CEO of UnibailRodamco Germany. "We would like to surprise our visitors again and again, arouse their curiosity and give them the opportunity to go on a discovery tour. The unexpected digital signature provides us an exceptional platform to attract the attention of customers and inspire them with impressive experiences." www.shopping-centre.co.uk

GOING DIGITAL The popularity of digital signage looks set to continue its growth, and Martin Macwhinnie, commercial manager at Capital & Regional, says is the reason why the landlord made the move to leave behind paper advertising in favour of an all-digital marketing campaign in late 2015.

“Digital gives us a much more immediate approach than paper as with paper you might have to have the same billboard up for six weeks,” Macwhinnie says, “but with digital the turnover is much faster, much more up to date and a lot more seamless. It allows us to fill unused space more efficiently.

Eventually the model will change and booking an ad space will be like booking a hotel, just a few clicks away.”

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CABOT CIRCUS DRIVES VALUE FROM ADI SCREEN

Cabot Circus Shopping Centre is now enjoying the commercial benefits of a new LED screen installed by specialists ADI. As one of the largest retail-led regeneration projects in the UK, Cabot Circus was keen to explore the opportunities of a digital media site in a key indoor location.

With the deal brokered by the Out of Home Media Consultancy, ADI was the preferred supplier for the screen. Situated in the main atrium area of Cabot Circus – located by main thoroughfares and surrounded by a variety of restaurants – the 22.46 sq m LED screen allows big brands to target the 17 million shoppers that visit the centre annually. Crucially the screen was installed before the busy Christmas retail period, maximising exposure for advertisers.

Suzie Wood, commercialisation manager at Cabot Circus, says: “When deciding to create a new digital advertising site it became clear that screen ownership would bring most benefits. Owning the physical asset allows us to add value to the centre and drive the greatest commercial return while being part of our media partner’s national portfolio.”

“ADI was the obvious choice for the installation due to their pedigree in shopping centre LED screens and previous projects across the UK. The entire installation process was seamless, from the initial consultations to the final design and handover of the screen.”

The Cabot Circus install is the ninth screen ADI have created at a Hammerson site.

The 6mm resolution screen is retro-fitted directly on to the existing lift shaft in the centre of Cabot Circus, with the sleek design engineered to fit in with the aesthetic of the structure.

The detail behind the screen is integrated in to the lift shaft giving the screen a clean finish while ADI’s own Virtuality LED product allows front-fixing access for quick and easy maintenance.

Drew Burrow, sales team leader at ADI, says: “The new screen at Cabot Circus utilised ADI’s in-house expertise and cutting edge LED technology. It helps shape a positive shopper experience and creates brand awareness for advertisers, while offering an important commercial element for Cabot Circus for years to come. Our unique blend of operational excellence and innovative LED technology is helping us secure further retail projects across the UK with a number of installations in the coming months.”

SHOPPING CENTRE APRIL 2017

He says that outdoor advertising is significant because it’s the first contact point for most people coming to a centre and it has an immediate impact on the consumer and is close enough to the point of sale to entice them inside.

He also champions centres having ownership and control of their own electronic billboards, saying that sometimes advertising companies would buy the screens, install them in centres, but then end up not using them for periods at a time, leaving them with blank screens that they could not fill with content.

“This way, we can hold back some free space for ourselves for promotions in the centre, like the Christmas lights turning on, centre gift cards and the like alongside the retailer support,” he elaborates. And, he says, it makes it much easier for local, independent retailers as: “smaller businesses might just want to pay to advertise for as little as a few hours to promote an offer they might have going on that day or that evening.”

For the more traditional centre, ditching paper advertising altogether might sound like a risky manoeuvre. Macwhinnie asserts his confidence, however, that it will prove to be a good investment. “The industry, whether it’s online or out of home, is always going to spend money on advertising,” he says. “That’s not going to change. All that will change is the way they will be able to showcase their brands and products, and as technology www.shopping-centre.co.uk

COMMERCIALISATION

makes this easier, it is certainly the way forward. “

REACHING NEW HEIGHTS Although the Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH) market is growing, it may in time prove itself limited by the amount of available advertising real estate in premium urban locations. New startup, Lightvert, looks set to disrupt the market with its groundbreaking new augmented reality solution called Echo. Echo is a patented technology that aims to take advertising to new dimensions of both height and engagement, producing huge digital images that appear as if by magic to the viewer. The company’s goal is to see a cityscape where giant adverts up to 200m high appear – only in the viewer’s eye and on their smartphones.

“It sounds like science-fiction, but the reality is much closer to home,” says Daniel Siden, CEO of Lightvert. “Using the persistence of vision effect, Echo hardware has virtually no physical footprint. It introduces new audience behaviour and is a powerful opportunity for advertisers and property owners, which could dramatically change the game in terms of capital costs and planning permissions for premium outdoor media.”

Echo uses augmented reality to potentially unlock vast amounts of lucrative advertising real estate on high-rise www.shopping-centre.co.uk

buildings and other tall structures. The space saving technology has a global patent pending, and Lightvert believes it will open up exciting new advertising opportunities in outdoor spaces that are currently inaccessible to traditional billboards and LED screens.

“Traditional billboards and large scale LED screens in built-up environments are expensive and it is increasingly challenging to leverage new real estate in crowded urban spaces such as New York’s Times Square and London’s Piccadilly Circus," Siden says.

"Echo provides a new way for brands to rise above the noise of street level advertising and engage with audiences on an unprecedented scale.”

The Echo technology prints an image in the viewer’s eye, which last for from a tenth to a quarter of a second, both temporarily and safely. The human eyes make the sort of movement that can pick the image up around 7,000 times an hour, so when a person’s eyes move, they are imprinted with the picture.

The image is generated by a 100mm strip-light, which is fixed to the side of the building, and a high-speed light scanner which projects light off of a reflector and towards the viewer.

This creates large-scale images that are ‘captured’ for a brief moment in the viewer’s eye through a ‘persistence of vision’ APRIL 2017 SHOPPING CENTRE

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effect. It takes a two-dimensional image and breaks it up into vertical columns of pixel data. When a person looks at the display, they see a flickering of light, but the image is then reassembled by their retina and gives a lasting impression of the image.

“The image is different from a screen,” Siden explains. “It’s a different experience. From a screen, we expect a certain level of detail, but that level of clarity isn’t necessary. The image on our prototypes are around 100 pixels squared, which in modern terms doesn’t seem like a lot, but for our purposes its all that is needed. People only get a glimpse of the images for a quarter to a tenth of a second, and so the image only makes an impression. People recognise images, and when they see, for example, the Mona Lisa at a glance they know they’ve seen the Mona Lisa. It’s a combination between resolution and experience."

With such low pixilation, providing a lot of information through the projections seems to be a barrier, but Siden does not believe this is an issue. “We’re expecting that our first commercial unit will be 300 pixels squared,” he says. “There’s a practical limit to these things, and not a lot of room for improvement, but it’s not entirely necessary given the nature of the technology. It would be impractical to try and put up SHOPPING CENTRE APRIL 2017

a paragraph of information. We limit it to five characters, which in some languages like Mandarin can equate to a lot of information, but in English this has its limitations. It’s more about symbol-ology – producing symbols that people recognise or expect to see, but giving them a different experience of view them.”

Lightvert are working with Kinetic worldwide to develop the technology, and the first commercial prototype is expected to reach the market in October 2017. “It’s a completely new medium, so we have to so a certain amount of experimentation, but the potential is definitely there,” Siden says. “It’s definitely a unique attraction point for consumers, and an exciting new way for advertisers to target shoppers. New technology is always a point of interest and were optimistic that people will be drawn in by what we can offer.”

On paper, it might strike some as an assault on the subconscious, as consumers are being targeted by a fleeting image, but Siden assures that it is both legal and completely safe. As with any new technology of its kind, it has undergone the tests for epilepsy and any other potential risk and, he says, passed with flying colours. He stresses that the image is definitely not subliminal as users are able to use their smartphone camera to capture the projection. www.shopping-centre.co.uk

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What is important, he says, is that when people are exposed to the Echo technology, they will know what they have seen and it should, he hopes, make people look twice and actively engage with the projections in a way that LED screens might lack.

Siden talks a big game, especially considering the technology is still a fledgling concept, with prototypes so far scaling a fractional 30m of the 200m goal height. If it can come to fruition in the way that he envisages, however, it certainly paves the way for a biggest disruption to the DOOH advertising market since the introduction of LED back in 2005.

“When people look at screens, they’ve become adept at ignoring them because they’ve been around for long enough and are so recognisable that often a screen doesn’t even register,” Siden says. “Our technology is more surprising. People will see it and they’ll need to take a second glance to make sure they saw something, which is huge for advertisers. If you can get a consumer to actively, willingly engage with your brand in this way then that is most definitely a win.”

“Overall,” Siden concludes, “it’s about providing an outdoor media experience. It’s a huge opportunity to invest in and we are really confident that it will be a success.” www.shopping-centre.co.uk

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enable the DISABLED

The disabled community makes up a significant proportion of the UK population and catering to their needs is fundamental to creating a welcoming environment.

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t present, there are more than 11 million disabled people in the UK, and the spending power of their households – dubbed ‘the purple pound’ – is worth almost £250bn. Many businesses, including shopping centres, are missing out on this customer base by neglecting to provide the necessary services, resulting in the exclusion of the disabled community from these locations.

“These industries must become fully inclusive,” says minister for disabled people, work and health, Penny Mordaunt. “Not being able to access the high street, products and services, transport or simply to access a loo jars with our national values: it must change.”

North Swindon’s Orbital shopping park recently saw a multimillion pound investment to improve accessibility for all visitors.

Visitors can now navigate the shopping park more easily as there is improved pedestrian flow, a new customer service centre, and new toilets featuring a new, state-of-the-art Changing Places suite.

The Changing Places suite, supplied and installed by Clos-o-Mat, is designed to enable anyone who needs assistance when toileting to do so 'with dignity and optimum hygiene'. The Changing Places at Orbital are bigger than conventional wheelchair-accessible toilets also have more equipment, including a height-adjustable washbasin, ceiling track X/Y hoist and wall-mounted, heightadjustable adult-sized changing bench.

“When planning the refurbishment, we asked the local SHOPPING CENTRE APRIL 2017

community what facilities they would like, and a Changing Places was suggested,” explained Jamie Turner, centre manager for Broadgate Estates, which manages the British Land-owned shopping park. “We aim to provide a safe, accessible and enjoyable shopping experience, and accessibility is top of our agenda.”

“People who use facilities such as Changing Places tell us that without them, they simply can’t do things most of us take for granted, like a trip to the shops,” adds Kelvin Grimes, away from home toileting project manager for Clos-o-Mat. “The options, without a Changing Places or similar, are to lie a loved one on the floor of a public convenience to change them. With all the associated safety, sanitary considerations that go with that, go home, or not go out at all.”

The St Enoch centre, Glasgow, also saw great success with its Changing Places facility, taking home the National Award for Scotland in the 2016 Loo of the year Awards. The facilities were recently refurbished with the support of a grant from Glasgow City Council, and contain specialist equipment, including hoists and adult-sized changing benches. Extra space was incorporated to accommodate up to two carers.

The Mall Luton, which has three sets of busy toilets and over two and a half million users a year, gave its Bute toilets a £450,000 makeover. A special sub team, including GM Roy Greening, MM Lavinia Douglass, security manager Glenda Lorenc, health care professionals from The Mall Nursery and Creche and also some local mums reviewed the plans and made amendments. www.shopping-centre.co.uk

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Improvements included: sliding doors to maximise space; reorientating the space to double the changing spaces available; turning the changing mats 90 degrees to make it easier to change children; removing hand dryers in the area so as not to upset small children; interactive toys for the walls in the feeding room; parent and child toilet in one room; a water fountain and ergonomically designed feeding chairs to provide enhanced comfort. In October the Bute toilets achieved Platinum status in the 2016 Loo of the Year Awards.

The Minister for Disabled People, Work and Health recently appointed intu’s corporate responsibility manager, Helen Drury, as one of eleven sector champions who will drive forward the Government’s ambition to tackle the issues disabled people face as consumers.

The champions, who represent a range of different sectors and businesses, from banking to media, will use their influential status as leaders in their industries to promote the benefits of being inclusive to disabled people.

The sector champions aim to amplify the voices of disabled customers and employees within their own industries, increasing accountability and challenging inequality. They will also be able to highlight specific changes and improvements that will make a difference to the millions of people who often miss out.

At the SCMC conference last month, Kirsty Necker, Collaboration Manager at Guide Dogs, spoke of the importance of training centre staff to recognise and assist disabled customers. “A lot of www.shopping-centre.co.uk

staff who work in retail and come into contact with people who have sight loss don’t know what to do. They don’t know if they should approach them or leave them or how they should interact, so they choose the lesser of all the evils and don’t do anything.

Either that or they tell them to get out the store because dogs aren’t allowed.

“We found that doing training with staff and showing them how to help and assist the people with disability which does actually create a sense of wellbeing for the staff because it takes the stress off them because they now know what to do in that situation. It’s a positive experience for someone who is entering that environment because they don’t know what issues they might meet until they get in there, so when you have someone saying ‘hi, can I help you find X’, they are actually trained to be able to help.

She explained the work Guide Dogs has been doing some with Hammerson recently to understand the experience of their shopping centres in relation to a disabled person, and helping determine the things that they can do to make it a more pleasurable place for people with disability. “It’s not about providing a single, bespoke solution for sight loss,” she says, “but a solution so that everyone can access the environment comfortably. It applies for somebody in a wheelchair who might want a large cubicle toilet, but also having a smaller option for someone who has sight loss or dementia who doesn’t want the space to get lost in. It’s about understanding how you might use space and what the issues are.”

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customer experience.”

To meet the online challenge, retail and Operational teams have a critical role to play in leisure destinations across the UK are making sure that shoppers and diners keep coming investing heavily in market research to back, according to Tina Hobart from support understand the shifting needs of their services company, Interserve. customer catchments, she says, explaining that this in turn enables them to reposition their offer and to promote it through advertising, social media hopping centres are making their comeback. Centre owners and managers know now that they need deliver an and public relations to attract new and existing customers.

But promoting the centre is only half of the story. “The job of experience that can’t be matched online. Tina Hobart, head bringing a centre’s brand to life falls to the people on the ground. of customer experience – commercial at Interserve, says that Our role is to put together a tailored customer experience customers no longer simply want the convenience of having strategy which ensures that teams – from traditional customer multiple operators selling their wares alongside each other, but service representatives to maintenance, washroom, car parking demand a dynamic, engaging and personal environment where and security personnel – deliver services that keep a centre they can socialise and explore. running smoothly and looking its best at all times.”

As research from JLL showing that restaurant space in malls has doubled in the last ten years, many schemes are working hard to bring in a greater mix of catering and leisure operators THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY that encourage customers to stay longer. “Across the portfolio In order to do this, Hobart advises that teams put themselves of leading centres we work on,” Hobart says, “owners and in the shoes of the customer, saying that when looking at how asset managers have met the challenge with physical changes centres are managed, it is imperative to understand and map the – reconfiguring units to allow modern occupiers to better journey around the scheme in order to make sure the customer showcase their brand and to create a sense of theatre in stores.” has an undisrupted trip, in terms of environment, ease of Transforming the customer environment is, however, is navigation and the availability of services along any given route. not just about these set-piece investments, but And many of the tools are already there. a cultural shift in the way that centres are “Footfall information and data provided by wireless managed, according to Hobart. “Centre connections can help us to understand how people move around facilities and services have long been a centre,” she says. “The next step is then to walk these routes seen as a necessary cost and and look at them through a customer’s eyes asking a series of the concern of managers, not questions. Is the route clear? Are services well signed? Is the customers,” she explains. “In the lighting adequate and welcoming? By assessing the centre in context of increasingly discerning this way and addressing any failings, we can make sure we’re and demanding shoppers and identifying the things that matter most to customers, which diners, however, we now need can then be prioritised as part of our ongoing management of a to reassess the value that scheme.” the smooth running of these Getting the physical environment right is fundamental to services holds to ensuring delivering a great customer experience, but the quality of a consistent, high-quality service and human interaction is something that online cannot

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SHOPPING CENTRE APRIL 2017

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operators H CUSTOMER SERVICE

match, and so it is the centre team that can really make the difference. But what is the most effective way of ensuring this connection?

“It’s very easy for operational teams to be split into silos – delivering their part of the plan but losing sight of the overall strategy,” says Hobart. “Our training schemes focus on cross-skilling, enabling each member of a team to understand what the others are doing and how they can support one another. For example, a member of the cleaning team will be encouraged to watch out for potential maintenance problems, such as a damaged door or a leaking pipe, enabling these issues to be addressed quickly before they interfere with the customer’s experience of the centre.”

The training programme puts emphasis on communication, as in the digital age, Interserve recognises that customers expect to be able to find the answer to an enquiry at the touch of a button, and so it should be the goal for staff to provide a similarly rapid service in-centre. The programme aims to educate team members to see themselves as customer-facing, as well as being able to provide directions, information and advice to members of the public.

“Customer service will always require a central marshalling point but teams must also be available where the customers need them, whether it’s at the entrance to the centre, in the malls or outside a specific store,” Hobart says. “In turn this model opens up opportunities to reclaim customer service area to double as a commercial selling space – for example hosting pop up product displays, acting as a click and collect point or even providing a home for experiential uses such as an in-centre style advisor.”

It is important, she says, to plan for the evolution of the consumer, keeping up with trends and expectations that might arise in shopping malls. As consequence, managing services and facilities should aim to have just the right amount of flexibility to adapt to any potential developments whilst still providing the a high standard of customer experience.

“The growth of leisure occupiers for example has had major www.shopping-centre.co.uk

consequences for security requirements,” says Hobart. “As centres stay open longer and attract evening spend, we need to make sure that security teams are trained to manage any disturbances sensitively, in a way that does not compromise the enjoyment of other shoppers and diners.

“Managing change in this way will ensure that our centres continue to thrive,” she says, concluding that “delivering a consistently high quality of customer experience that keeps people coming back time and time again.”

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SCMC 2017

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SCMC 2017

KEEPING CONSUMERS CONFIDENT Broadcaster and business journalist Adam Shaw, who hosted the Shopping Centre Management Conference, set the tone for the day’s agenda.

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ollowing introductions from Shopping Centre’s editor Graham Parker, who highlighted the conference’s focus on making centres more engaging and welcoming places for the customer, and GL Hearn planning director, and Revo’s president, Giulia Bunting, who backed the importance of building communities and providing more than just leisure, the event’s host for the third time, broadcaster and business journalist Adam Shaw, got the ball rolling at the Shopping Centre Management Conference.

Shaw gave an economic overview, laying out some hard, yet ultimately optimistic views of the British retail economy, focusing on economic growth – which he reiterated is 75 per cent greater than that of Germany. The problems, he says, is that despite continued inflation, it is never as high as it is expected to be. Although the the economy is growing, people’s wages are not. Workers, he said, are employed, but they are underemployed.

During his presentation, Shaw gave an analogy he picked up during his time making a documentary for the BBC in the Amazon rainforest. The story told of an old woman, who represents ‘the truth’, being turned away time and time again whilst seeking shelter; and a strong man, who represents ‘the story’, who is welcomed openly at every home. The two then come together with the truth entering into homes hidden under the story’s colourful cloak. Applying this to retail, he said that SHOPPING CENTRE APRIL 2017

success comes from how a centre or a brand sells its story.

“It’s about seeing how people are connecting to [your story] and how to change people’s perceptions,” Shaw said. “That’s why this is important. Consumer confidence is down. There is a sense of uneasiness – which is odd, because the economy is doing well. We’ve had 17 quarters of economic growth. Why are people so worried when the economy is growing? But here is the problem: sure the economy looks good, but people don’t feel it. They have less disposable income.”

So in the face of uncertainty, how can businesses safeguard the continuing presence of their customers? “Despite concerns, there’s a huge opportunity at a time when consumers want something different,” Shaw explained. “When you look at some of the big developments in the big businesses and you look back at their history, they came out of times of big uncertainty, when people were looking for a different sort of answer. It’s about saying ‘if you want change, I can give you something new’.

The opportunities are there, I think, for the taking.”

His closing advice was about staying focused on what is important to your business. “After 30 years of covering business and economics,” he concluded, “the key differentiating factor between people and businesses that are successful is the ability to know ‘that information is useful, that information is not, and I need to know where I am concentrating.’” www.shopping-centre.co.uk

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GO SCMC 2017

GOING LOCAL

Ellandi director and Revo vice president Mark Robinson led a session on the growing importance of local authorities as investors, on top of all their existing roles that affect shopping centres.

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obinson pointed out that in 2016 local authorities bought £1bn of commercial property, of which £400m was spent on shopping centres. “Taking the mega-deals out of the equation, local authorities accounted for half of the shopping centre investment market,” he said.

Kevin Parkes, executive director at Middlesbrough Council, explained why there had been this sudden surge. “Changes in local government finance mean that from 2020/21 we’ll have to generate out own funding. Commercial rents are an income stream that can support services like social care.” And he noted that the dynamic between centres and councils is changing, as more local authorities become investors. “The relationship between centres and councils has not always been positive,” he said. “But the shopping centre industry needs to do more to ‘sell’ what it does to local authority finance directors because at the moment all they’re hearing are all the negative stories around retail.”

So what can landlords do to engage more productively with the public sector? Angus Stenhouse, retail portfolio manager at Standard Life Investments, advised: “Patience and understanding are required when building long-term relationships with a local authority.” As an example he pointed to Lincoln, where Standard Life worked with the city for seven years before they reached the stage that they could bring the SHOPPING CENTRE APRIL 2017

St Marks redevelopment forward.

Panellist Andrew Dudley, Land Securities’ head of retail development, said local authorities have had to become more realistic in their expectations of what new town centre developments can deliver. “Trying to build in experience, flexibility and a mix of uses into a scheme means costs are higher and viability is tighter,” he said. That means there’s less available for the civic facilities like theatres, libraries and bus stations that used to be a common part of the retail regeneration template.

Land Securities’ Westgate scheme in Oxford is a case in point,.

“A fellow REIT tried for many years before it was recognised that the ‘add-ons’ made it unviable, and Land Securities was able to take a revised scheme forward,” he said.

All four panellists agreed that it is the centre manager who has the key role to play in building relationships with the local authority. “The centre manager is our representative in the town and their relationship with the local authority is a key function,” said Standard Life’s Stenhouse.

Parkes called for the centre manager’s role to be widened.

“It’s critically important that power is devolved to the centre managers so they can make decisions. The government talks a lot about devolution to a local level. The private sector should be looking at doing the same.” www.shopping-centre.co.uk

SCMC 2017

EMBRACING A LIFE OF LEISURE Ashley Blake, CEO of Otium Leisure Real Estate and co-founder of the Leisure Property Forum, talked about the evolution and future trends in the leisure sector.

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he leisure market is a constantly diversifying concept, Ashley Blake keenly asserted during his talk on the trends growing in prominence in the leisure retail market. As leisure continues to be the buzzword for many centres, with some going as far as to open up extensions devoted to leisure, it is fast becoming obvious, Blake says, that this is shifting away from dining brands and towards experiential offers.

Leisure concepts popular overseas have seen a surge in recent years, he noted, with the explosion of trampoline parks and dessert parlours. The number of trampoline operators has grown rapidly from around 10-20 just a few years ago to over 200 locations across the UK. While the media have thrown doubt on the experiential offering, Blake reiterated that this is a marginal

www.shopping-centre.co.uk

concern and was born from an initial lack of adequate training. It has since been remedied by the introduction of new guidelines to make sure all the necessary safety precautions.

Blake also championed the changing face of bars, moving towards offering premium, well-regulated space. He cited the desire for luxury and a nationwide health-consciousness as factors causing people to switch from quantitative to qualitative experiences. He said: "As the likes of craft beer become more prominent and develop into a more diverse and interesting market, people are seeking out viable, well run, well maintained locations to experience these products."

Competitive experiences, he said, have seen growth in retail-centric locations with people seeking familiar, affordable locations to try the latest trends. This spans the likes of mini golf to socialised gaming to table tennis.

A trend Blake said which has been settling down, is Health and Fitness, where: "the budget market is taking the lion’s share, offering good quality machines at a fraction of the price of their luxury counterparts." He highlighted, however, that the higher-end market is still robust as the increase in price indicates a more premium offering to include swimming pools and spas.

He contrasted the growth in the leisure market to the cooling of the restaurant market saying the food and beverage industry is nearing its plateau, claiming too many restaurants offering the same thing and many brands choosing to rein in their plans for expansion.

On a more optimistic note, he gave his predictions on the future of the leisure market, saying that people will always be looking for new ways to socialise.

This, he said, will lead to new concepts multiplying rapidly, such as Escape Rooms experiences and fitness-centric offers like Tough Mudder, and centres should look to house the trends they determine could be long lasting as soon as possible.

His presentation was followed by a Q&A, during which he remained optimistic that the impact of Brexit would be good for the leisure economy with people choosing ‘staycations’, and spending more money on experiences.

Returning to the notion that consumers have reached “peak stuff” he asserted that now people are looking for small, escapist experiences in their stead.

Giulia Bunting, who joined the panel for the Q&A, said that it can take a long time for a planning system to catch up with growing trends, and the industry is working towards lifting the barrier of restrictive use classes by helping to educate local authorities to recognise the wider benefits of leisure operators. These closing words were backed by host Adam Shaw, who said that: “It’s not the strongest and fastest that survive, it’s the most adaptable.”

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* To behold the possibilities

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THE

TIGER TALE

Emma Bier, co-founder of retailer Tiger described the rollercoaster ride that took her and her husband Philip from startup to the successful sale of a 44-strong store portfolio in just 12 years.

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anish-born Philip was a professional photographer for 20 years and Emma worked as a store designer for Waitrose when the birth of their second child prompted a radical rethink about their ambitions. Through a family connection they knew Tiger’s founder Lennart Lajboschitz, and as regular visitors to Copenhagen they were familiar with the quirky retail brand. “I was always surprised by what they sold. Every time I left the store thinking ‘how is that possible?’” Emma remembered.

Lajboschitz agreed that the brand would translate to the UK, and he granted the couple a 50 per cent share in the UK business. The Danish parent would provide stock, marketing and merchandising support, but the Biers were totally responsible for operational matters, and that meant they had to remortgage their house to raise the £200,000 needed to fund the startup.

The biggest challenge was finding a store to trade from. “Landlords seem to struggle when dealing with startups,” she said. Eventually a former Dixons unit in Basingstoke was secured but Emma still feels the process was unnecessarily difficult. “A partnership approach between landlord and tenant could ease that process,” she said. “Landlords, think outside the box and you might just end up with the next Tiger in your centre.”

The store consisted of a simple white box with low-level displays in a maze arrangement. “We brought hygge to the UK in 2005 with our low-level pendant lights,” she recalled. A year later the second store opened in Hammersmith, bang opposite Primark. “We had maxed out or loan but the store traded so well it www.shopping-centre.co.uk

paid back its whole investment in just 11 weeks,” she said.

“It was so busy we had to employ a night shift to keep it merchandised.” She said: “The Hammersmith customer totally fitted Tiger and it was consistently one of the top five stores worldwide.”

One feature of the business has been price transparency.

“We have no Sales and no loyalty scheme,” Bier said, “just great service and great products. Customers will come back if your all-round offer is good.”

The shopfit evolved with every opening and in time the brand experimented with price points up to £5 rather than just £2. And the Biers moved from buying other retailers’ end-of-lines at trade fairs into designing their own products, bringing a wider range and better quality. As a result the brand moved from what Bier described as a “posh pound shop” to a design brand and its target locations moved accordingly, aiming at areas with high disposable income and correspondingly higher rents.

One move epitomised this change when Tiger moved out of the Stratford shopping centre in east London into Westfield Stratford City across the road.

“Westfield demanded higher design standards – their design input improved our store and it’s now become standard,”

Bier said, “Low prices and good value don’t have to be cheap and nasty.”

In 2016 the chain rebranded as Flying Tiger Copenhagen, allowing it to use the same brand worldwide including Japan and the USA where it had been prohibited from using the Tiger name for copyright reasons. And at the end of the year the Danish company bought out the Biers’ stake.

So what does Bier think made Tiger a success when other better-funded startups failed? “The ability to renew is part of it,” she said. “But above all surprise the customer and over-deliver at every transaction.”

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SCMC 2017

MAKING THE MOST OF MULTI-CHANNEL Experts from across the industry give their views on the marketability of the online-instore connection.

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ragma’s director, Helene Mills, and managing director, strategy and investor services, Ralph Fernando, kicked off the session with a presentation about the analytics company, outlining its recent trends and how it expects the retail industry to progress.

“Predicting the future is the main challenge,” said Helene Mills.

“The more people innovate, the more customers expect. We need to focus on the customer need rather than technology.

Too many think of it the other way round and technology is not cheap. I think that’s quite poignant and many agree that keeping the consumer at the heart of what they do and not being overly led or distracted by technology is absolutely key. We should not lose heart in the traditional channels because they will remain important even though the world is changing.”

Mills went on to note that, despite the continuous rise of online retail, the majority shares were going to online focused

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SCMC 2017 brands like Amazon and ebay, and the instant gratification produced by buying in store looked likely to remain. She also highlighted that online-only retailers are still looking for bricks and mortar sites, including millennial fashion brand Missguided, and other brands are focusing on catering to their local clientele, such as Waterstones.

Ralph Fernando then led a panel discussion with Andrew McVicker, sales director at FSP, Daniel Graham, managing director at OnBrand, and Andy Briggs, general manager at the Oracle shopping centre on how managers can help merge the two channels.

McVicker championed food and beverage as a key focus for centres in enticing shoppers away from their computer screens. “One of the big impacts [centre managers have] seen is the increased demand for food and beverage within their schemes. Obviously it’s something the online really struggles to replicate, and that experience can be a real driver. Our research shows that on average in the UK, 48 per cent of shopping visits involve stopping for food or beverage of some, so it’s a really strong opportunity for centres to address.

“When we talk about experience,” he continued, “we can sometimes get carried away with placing trampolining parks and the like in every single centre. It’s about knowing the local market and knowing what your shoppers needs and wants, and F&B provides something that the internet just can’t replicate.”

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Briggs backed the rise of click and collect and in-store refund as an opportunity rather than an enemy, claiming that customers are not just online or in store, they are more promiscuous and for a lot of people it’s about obtaining a product, the channel through which they do this is often irrelevant. He supported this with the statistic that 80 per cent of people who click and collect go on to make an additional purchase in store.

Graham addressed the looming growth of online retail, but said that leisure is biting back. “Yes, retail has changed, certainly on the leisure side of things, but people still want to come into stores. People like the instant gratification and if they want to buy something physically, they’ll go and buy it physically. To be able to touch, feel, and try things on, and even return – there is still that personalised human touch there.”

Graham also recommended that managers get to know and work with retailers as there is a growing thought that suggests shopping centre managers have more budget available to communicate with the retailers through digital channels, and it could prove the simplest way to get quick wins. “It used to be a case of putting digital in a marketing world, but now I would say it’s putting marketing in a digital world,” he said. In his concluding point, he urged managers that: "it’s about diversifying your offering and being about more than just shopping."

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SCMC 2017

THE END OF DISRUPTION Amelia Kallman, global director of Engage Works, looked at the latest technological innovations likely to change the retail landscape

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allman began with a striking assertion. “Disruption is one of the most over-used words. It’s all hype designed to scare you,” she said. “The world has always changed and it continues to change. If you think of it as evolution it takes the scariness out of it.”

She pointed out that the barriers between e-commerce and physical retail are breaking down. “Amazon and eBay understand that they have to create experiences, to connect with people a bit more emotionally,” she said.

As an example she pointed to Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology, currently being trialled in a store in Seattle.

Smart shelves register when an item has been picked up by a customer, identified by their smartphone, and the price is immediately charged to that customer’s Amazon account. “It’s a bold move, taking the human out of the equation,” Kallman said.

But eBay has approached physical retail in a completely different way. Its pop-up in Covent Garden used social media feeds to share customers’ experience of a product. “It’s all about creating community and making people feel they have a connection,” Kallman noted.

But conversely physical retailers are trying to reproduce some of the strengths of e-commerce. “How can stores recreate the personalisation and customisation we see online?”

Kallman asked. She believes Virtual and Augmented Reality will go some way to bridge the gap, adding “the social aspect will make it inclusive rather than exclusive.”

And she predicted: “Artificial Intelligence is going to have an impact across the board - if you're not thinking about it, you should be.” Already brands are using digital mascots to deliver brand messages in a cheeky, fun way and banks are using AI to replace call centres. A voicebot can handle 1,000 calls at once and it can detect emotion in the customer’s voice, handing the call on to a human as soon as it detects the customer is becoming frustrated by the process. www.shopping-centre.co.uk

Other applications highlighted by Kallman include Monsoon’s generative artwork that ensures the storefront always reflects the current season’s colours; GMC’s use of facial recognition to deliver personalised ads on a digital six-sheet and Lululemon’s digital mirrors that provide an experience instore that couldn’t be delivered online.

But ultimately technology is only a tool to deliver the traditional basics of retail according to Kallman. “It’s about how to excite, engage and inspire your customers so they keep coming back,” she said. “There has to be a human element – tech for tech’s sake simply doesn’t work.”

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SCMC 2017

HEALTH, WELLBEING & PRODUCTIVITY Richard Francis, founder of the Monomoy Company and director of sustainability at Gardiner & Theobald, helmed the discussion over economic performance considered through an environmental lens.

“

How many people know what their carbon footprint was last year within 10 per cent?” Richard Francis asked the audience, meeting no response. “How many people know how much they weigh within five to 10 pounds?” Nearly every hand in the room shot up. “I’ve yet to try that and have it not work out this way,” he said. This opening set the tone for the enlightening session looking at health and wellbeing in the industry.

Francis called health and wellbeing the world’s biggest social trend then related this to environment, saying that retail spaces should aim to provide fresh, bright, welcoming spaces for shoppers and staff to improve their overall sense of wellbeing.

This opened the door to the discussion panel, featuring Mike Taylor, centre manager of Fareham Shopping Centre, Kirsty Necker, collaboration manager of Guide Dogs, and Zoe Young, project manager the of Plan A team at Marks & Spencer.

Young highlighted the importance of creating a stimulating,

Enhancing the Customer Experience Mall Communications’ innovative team has developed MallVision, an advanced end-to-end digital signage solution specifically for shopping centres providing interactive wayfinding, promotional messaging, data collection and many other benefits.

In another UK-first, Mall Communications is now offering the MallVision system to shopping centres across the country in a leasing package over three years with affordable monthly payments, no up-front cost, and comprehensive support and service included. Each system is custom-

designed and built to order.

Bentall Centre director Sam Eastwood said: “working in partnership with Mall Communications, we designed and implemented a combined digital wayfinding and advertising solution. This has both enhanced our customer’s experience in The Bentall Centre and created a healthy revenue stream.

Our customers and retailers have welcomed the use of this innovative navigation system, which brings our online proposition into centre and most importantly directs our customers to their chosen stores.”

Please contact us for more information at hello@mallcommunications.com Directory Unit

Wayfinding Software

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Support Package

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www.shoppingmall.technology www.shopping-centre.co.uk

SCMC 2017 productive environment for retail staff. “For a typical office building, 90 per cent of the cost of the building comes from the people, the 9 per cent is the rent and the 1 per cent is the energy. We’ve got teams of people spending loads of time, money and effort, trying to reduce our energy consumption, but if we can increase the productivity of the people then we can have a massive benefit to our business, and we want to see how that can relate to the retail space.”

Mike Taylor, represented the voice of centre managers, championed the importance of wellbeing of not just the average consumer, but of a more inclusive approach to mental health. “It’s about communicating with our staff, educating them and giving them a sense of achievement from the customer service that they give,” he said.

“They received a huge amount of positive feedback from customers week on week, with staff receiving letters and social media messages about how well they have done. That, for internal staff, really does help in the wellbeing of their service,” Taylor said. “And it’s not just the centre staff, it’s also the tenants.

We did plenty of training for the staff, deliver the sessions to our staff and to our tenants, they are able to get on board with it and we are creating a much wider environment for their capabilities.”

The most affecting words of the session came from Kirsty Necker, tugging at the audiences’ conscience with the figures

of wealth held by the disabled community. She said: “There is £249bn every year on offer from the disability community, and you are excluding yourself from that if you aren’t including people with disability. And in excluding them, it creates a culture where we have social isolation where people can’t fully participate in our communities, which leads to a decline of health and wellbeing for everybody who is in it. I think there’s a massive role for retailers to play in the future in creating a community that we want to grow old in ourselves.

“We’re looking at the way we can influence our environment and at how we can help [landlords] create an inclusive environment for everybody, regardless of age or disability. Our perspective is looking at decreasing isolation and increasing participation.”

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Shopping Centre

Kiosk Instant access to store locator map - search by store type, product or latest offers, featuring targeted promotional advertising. Includes full local and regional wayfinding and journey planning on all modes, all through a clear intuitive touch-screen interface.

Target users with geo-referenced advertising providing directions to retail outlets or attractions, with uniquely identifiable special offer codes. Ability to measure footfall and visitor behaviour in key strategic parts of your shopping centre.

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SCMC 2017

THE HOLMES STRETCH

Paralympic swimming champion and now a campaigner for accessibility and diversity, Lord Holmes closed the conference with a rousing address on overcoming adversity.

C

hris Holmes began with a bold assertion that diversity is good for business. “Sustainability, wellbeing, employee satisfaction, customer care, profit and share price growth are all imperative. But none are achievable if they’re not predicated on inclusivity and the concept that everyone has a role to play,” he said.

Holmes’ life changed when as a 14-year-old, already a promising swimmer, he lost his sight overnight.

“What I sensed in those first few days and weeks was barriers coming up and people treating me differently,” he remembered. “There was a ‘culture of can’t.’ I was even told I couldn’t go back to the pool because I was a fire risk.

“But I achieved because people got around me and supported me. They made it possible because as individuals they had an inclusive mindset.” www.shopping-centre.co.uk

It took Chris Holmes five years of training five hours a day to qualify for the Barcelona Paralympics, where he won five golds in five days. And in the swim meet’s final event – the 100m freestyle – he just beat the local favourite to lift his medal tally to an unprecedented six golds. “Two million metres of training for each arm stroke of that final, and all it came down to was half a second,” he recalled.

Three more golds followed in Atlanta and Sydney before Holmes was invited to join the bid team for London 2012.

London’s aim was to make the first fully inclusive Olympic and Paralympic bid.

“The most important thing for me was to have access, diversity and inclusion hardwired right through the organisation,” Holmes said.

But winning the right to host the games was only the beginning. “We then

had to deliver over a seven-year period, and everything we did had to embody those three things,” Holmes said. “The thing that drove me was that if we got it right we’d fundamentally change forever attitudes to and opportunities for disabled people.”

The 2012 Paralympic Games were an unprecedented success with every single ticket sold out and wall-to-wall coverage on free-to-air TV making household names of athletes like David Weir, Ellie Simmons and Sarah Storey. “It was the most sensational world-class event,” says Holmes.

“There’s no separate world of disability.

It’s just people like you, people like me. It comes down to one individual believing things can be other than they are. So ask yourselves ‘what am I going to do to enable potential to be unleashed,’” he concluded.

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SCMC 2017

ACES HIGH The winners of this year’s Revo ACE Awards for customer service impressed the team of mystery shoppers with an outstanding level of customer experience RETAIL & LEISURE PARK Vangarde Shopping Park – York Managing agent: Workman Retail Soft service provider: AEJ The judges said...“The scheme was very well looked after with a great team who truly make customers feel comfortable and wanting to return.”

COMMUNITY The Howgate shopping centre – Falkirk Owner: Ellandi Managing agent: Workman Retail Soft service provider: Palmaris Services The judges said...“We were extremely impressed. It was clear that Howgate are passionate about delivering a great experience for its customers and retailers.”

COMMUNITY Whiteley – Hampshire Owner: British Land & USS Managing agent: Broadgate Estates

SHOPPING CENTRE APRIL 2017

Soft service provider: Incentive FM The judges said... “The visit was very enjoyable. There is a strong local customer base using the retail place to meet with friends and family as well as shop PRIMARY CENTRE & TOP ACE Drake Circus shopping centre – Plymouth Owner: British Land Managing agent: Broadgate Estates Soft service provider: ABM The judges said...“It was clear from discussions with the general manager and his team that the customer experience had been considered from strategy through to delivery across key customer touchpoints.”

DESTINATION HIGHCROSS – LEICESTER Owner: Hammerson Managing agent: Hammerson Soft service provider: ABM, VSG and Westway The Judges said...“It was extremely clear that this retail place is really living and breathing the customer experience journey.”

www.shopping-centre.co.uk

SCMC 2017

www.shopping-centre.co.uk

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DATA

Investment market grinds to a halt Just five shopping centres were transacted in the first quarter of 2017, according to Knight Frank research, the largest deal being the Stratford centre in east London for £141.5m at a net initial yield of 5.25 per cent.

Stephen Springham, Knight Frank’s head of retail research, said: “General market uncertainty was compounded by lack of supply and an ongoing disconnect between vendors’ and purchasers’ aspirations. But we expect to see stock and sales volumes improve in the latter part of the year, particularly as retail assets become cheaper and start to look increasingly better

value relative to other property sub-sectors.”

On the occupational side, retail sales slowed down in Q1 from the unsustainably high levels in the second half of last year.

There are also initial signs of price inflation in some retail sectors, but this is still at a very manageable level. The quarter also saw the first retailer casualties since the Referendum last year, in the shape of Blue Inc, Brantano and Jones the Bootmakers.

But Springham said these were very much isolated, company-specific instances, rather than a sign of universal distress in the wider occupier market.

Q1 2017 SHOPPING CENTRES TRANSACTIONS SHOPPING CENTRE

PURCHASER

VENDOR

PRICE (£M)

NIY %

The Belfy, Redhill

Milestone Trust

Bank of Ireland & KBC

£40.75m

7.50%

Buttermarket, Ipswich

DTZ IM

Capital & Regional

£54.7m

5.90%

Stratford Centre

Frogmore

Catalyst / Blackstone

£141.5m

5.25%

The Exchange, Ilford

Capital & Regional

Meyer Bergman

£78m

6.70% SOURCE: KNIGHT FRANK

Independent trader profile – Scots Corner In 1988 Glasgow was on the verge of being named as ‘European City of Culture’ and welcoming millions of tourists from all over the world. Straight out of university, 18-year-old Steven Watson from Bishopsbriggs received £30 per week from the Enterprise Allowance scheme and decided to launch his first business at the Glasgow Garden Festival. His career in retail was underway selling Scottish-themed products to tourists under the brand name Scots Corner.

In the early 90s Steven opened a store Glasgow’s busy Sauchiehall Street and once he had built up a loyal clientele in Glasgow, he made the decision to branch out to Greenock and began trading at Oak Mall as part of the monthly market. When the market was cancelled, he contacted Space to trade about SHOPPING CENTRE APRIL 2017

renting space on the mall.

He admits that after almost 30 years in the business, he was a little set in his ways and didn’t really understand that mall retailing required a different approach. “I initially thought that my customers were cruise liner travellers and other tourists.

However, through hard work and perseverance I have become very popular with local shoppers in Greenock and they know that they can rely on me to help them.

I’ve even assisted customers with kilts for weddings and other celebrations.”

Steven Watson puts his success at Oak Mall down to, not just being in the right place at the right time, but also the help and advice that he’s received from Space to trade. The mall retail specialist’s MD, Paul Clifford, firmly believes that local traders are an asset to any shopping centre. He said: “The new ‘business is local’ method is getting out there with a plan of attack and the mindset is to truly understand the business you wish to add to the centre’s existing offer. The days of simply placing traders in locations only to achieve occupancy has passed.’” www.shopping-centre.co.uk

Find out more about these suppliers Visit: shopping-centre.co.uk/directory Tel: 01293 416090 Email: trudy.whiston@jldmedia.com

PRODUCTS & SERVICES ACCESS

Fizzco Projects 01427 666029 www.fizzcoprojects.co.uk Gala Lights 01622 882424 www.galalights.com JB Display 01274 563506 www.jbdisplay.co.uk BUILDING REFURBISHMENT

MK Illumination 01254 778 670

Car Park Structural Repair & Protection Specialists • • • • • •

www.mk-illumination.co.uk Concrete Condition Testing & Investigation Lifecare Plans & Budget Costings Concrete Repair & Protection Anti-Carbonation Coatings Deck Waterproofing Movement Joints

RED i Design & Display 01821 670544 www.red-i.co.uk CLEANING & MAINTENANCE

BlueFrog Cleaning Services 01903 262 555 T: 0208 654 3149 W: www.cemplas.co.uk E: info@cemplas.co.uk

www.bluefrogcleaning.co.uk Vileda 0845 769 7356

PARKING

www.vileda-professional.com/en-GB/ COMMERCIALISATION

Destination Space 0161 743 4644 www.destination-space.com Forum CentreSpace 0191 226 8844 www.forumcentrespace.co.uk InnerSpace 0161 477 3652 www.innerspace.uk.com ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN

Portland Design

Shoppertainment Management Ltd

0207 017 8780

0161 817 5221

www.portland-design.com

www.shoppertainmentmanagement.co.uk

Swarco

Space to Trade

0174 882 4624

028 406 60138

CAR PARK GUIDANCE AND MANAGEMENT

www.swarco.com

www.shopping-centre.co.uk

www.spacetotrade.co.uk CUSTOMER COUNTING

CHRISTMAS SERVICES

Decx

Intelligent Counting

01773 835552

0118 932 4660

www.decx.co.uk

www.intelligentcounting.com

APRIL 2017 SHOPPING CENTRE

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Find out more about these suppliers Visit: shopping-centre.co.uk/directory Tel: 01293 416090 Email: trudy.whiston@jldmedia.com

44

PRODUCTS & SERVICES ENTERTAINMENT

Coinfactory

Parkeon Lmited

0161 633 2298

01202 339494

www.coinfactory.co.uk

www.parkeon.co.uk

Shorguard

Scheidt & Bachmann UK Ltd

01959 571 788

01372 230 400

www.shorguard.co.uk

www.scheidt-bachmann.com

Clearhill

UKPC

02840 622028

0333 220 1030

www.clearhill.com

www.ukparkingcontrol.com

Shopping Centre Mangement

Vehicle Control Services

01372 386983

0114 261 7111

HEALTH & SAFETY

LEISURE VENDING

MANAGEMENT SERVICES

www.shoppingcentremgt.co.uk

alunc@excelparking.co.uk RESEARCH

MARKETING

Shoppertainment Management Ltd

Latimer Appleby

0161 817 5221

01273 648 335

www.shoppertainmentmanagement.co.uk

www.latimerappleby.com SECURITY

JFR Promotions

VSG

0161 440 7035

01604 744000

www.jfrgroup.net

www.vsg.co.uk SHOPPING MALL WIFI

ANPR International

Inkspot Wifi

0114 261 7111

0131 556 4034

alunc@excelparking.co.uk

www.inkspotwifi.co.uk SIGNAGE

Excel Parking

Sign Options

0114 261 7111

01254 695550

alunc@excelparking.co.uk

www.signoptions.co.uk

PARKING

G24

TENANT LIAISON

Toolbox Group

0870 0427215

01359 250 208

www.g24.co.uk

www.toolboxgroup.global

Find out more about these suppliers... visit www.shopping-centre.co.uk/directory To advertise in Products & Services or in the Shopping Centre online directory please contact: Trudy Whiston at twhiston@55north.com

or call 01293 416 090 SHOPPING CENTRE APRIL 2017

www.shopping-centre.co.uk

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APRIL 2017 SHOPPING CENTRE

PEOPLE / MOVES

New apprentices at intu Victoria Gate named best Following a successful first year for its national apprenticeship programme, 15 more apprentices are being recruited by intu to begin new careers in the retail and hospitality sector.

The programme, which employs 20 apprentices across intu’s 14 branded shopping centres, was officially launched during National Apprenticeship Week 2016. Each apprentice is guaranteed a full time role at intu following the completion of their apprenticeship, which gives them the opportunity to gain experience within every area of the shopping centre business before they move on to a specialised field. Recruitment for the next phase of intu’s apprenticeship programme is due to begin during National Apprenticeship Week 2017.

HR director Bernie Kingsley said: “Apprenticeships are an important way for us to grow our skills base by introducing people to the retail industry for the first time and providing them with a ladder of opportunity to progress their careers.”

This month’s moves . . .

Shopping centre management specialist JOHN PRESTWICH has joined MONTAGU EVANS after four years at CBRE where he was senior director and head of UK shopping centre management. Prior to that he was head of retail property management at Cushman & Wakefield. At the same time CHRIS KEEN joins from CBRE as a partner in the retail & leisure team to start a new supermarket sector specialism.

GVA has appointed SUSAN MCCARTHY as Cannock shopping centre’s new centre manager, joining from the Roebuck shopping centre in Newcastle Under Lyme.

Also joining the management team is TERRI WALL, the new centre administrator.

CAPITA Real Estate and Infrastructure has appointed DAVE SPENCER as managing director. He initially joined Capita in 2001, was on the executive board from 2007 until 2014. He now rejoins from Amey www.shopping-centre.co.uk

shopping centre

Victoria Gate, Hammerson’s new premium retail development in Leeds, has been awarded Best Shopping Centre at the MIPIM Awards.

The scheme, designed by Acme, forms part of the new Victoria Leeds shopping destination. It is anchored by a flagship John Lewis, the first in Leeds and the largest outside London.

Victoria Gate competed against Lee Tung Avenue, Hong Kong; Morinomiya Q’s MALL BASE, Japan and Parc Central, China, to win the Best Shopping Centre Award. The MIPIM Awards are internationally-renowned and highly coveted as part of the industry’s largest real estate exhibition, MIPIM. It honours the most outstanding and accomplished projects, completed or yet to be built around the world.

where he is currently managing director of its consulting business.

HAMMERSON has recruited BILLY REID as centre manager for Dublin’s Ilac Centre. He started his career with Dunnes Stores in 2002, and went on to work with Marks & Spencer in Ireland for over ten years before becoming food services manager at Musgrave Wholesale Partners.

LCP has appointed JO KINSELLA as manager of the Arcadian leisure development in Birmingham. She previously worked as facilities manager at South and City College.

CARTER JONAS has promoted RICHARD LOVE as partner and head of architecture and building consultancy across the UK. At the same time JASON BROWN and KEITH FULLER both join as partners. CHRIS DYER joins as associate partner, DAISY FOX-POPE joins as associate while EMMA MURPHY joins as assistant project manager.

SHELLEY SANDZER has promoted LEO FELDMAN to partner and recruited TERRY MARTIN as head of the leasing team. His previous roles include five years at Land Securities in the asset management and development teams.

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