PANTHERA GROUP It’s a new approach. Traditionally we think of our centres in terms of bricks-and-mortar, leasing of the GLA and the creation of spaces. The new world – one of social media, ecommerce, online retail, data collection and usage et al – all ‘affect’ our centres, and of course, we incorporate them in our thinking and they influence our actions. But for the Panthera Group, the new world is the starting point; the centre is simply a part of it…
A
t a time when most of us in our industr y are battening down the hatches and weathering the storm, one outfit – one with an entirely new approach – is expanding and looking to buy centres. Panthera Group is a vertically integrated property, hospitality, technology management and investment group, established by Mario Evangelo and Chakyl Camal. They cut their teeth in re-working retail centres in Ganellen – a construction company co-founded in 1998 by Evangelo. During a five-year period, they bought and sold three sub-regional/neighbourhood centres: Kiama Village, Warners Bay Village (Newcastle) and Ropes Crossing in Western Sydney – achieving a weighted IRR of 44.2% over the period. But Evangelo and Camal saw a changing retail landscape – digital retail sales were in growth mode and the pair determined a need to re-think their business approach to bricks-and-mortar centres. SCN inter viewed Camal, who told us that digital technology, retail and property, were the core capabilities within the group that would drive their vision for the ‘Mall of the Future’. Camal, a former Olympic swimmer at the Beijing and London Olympics, is a passionate individual, who believes the role of digital technology will shape the centre of the future. He’s interesting because for him (and the Panthera Group), they are embracing the digital world, as distinct from most of us in our industry, whose major focus is on the material. 60 SCN
60-61-Profile_Panthera_FINAL.indd 60
For the past three years, Panthera Group has been developing its own omnichannel platform with its roll-out modules being continually trialled, tested and improved as the overall functionality grows and is embedded into its ‘Mall of the Future’ eco-system.
Panthera Group's omni-channel ecommerce ordering technology RiverShop Camal has a different mindset to the traditional shopping centre owner/ reduce fixed costs such as bricks-andmanager. He talks about mortar lease payments. Other retailers, the digital world constantly, using words many already operating shops in and phrases such as ‘digital natives’, centres, are less attuned to digital/ ‘omni-channel platforms’, ‘shopping online platforms and do not have the centre eco-systems’ and ‘integrating understanding, the time or capital to physical and digital’. He’s got the digital embrace this new form of retail. In and ecommerce world at the forefront, such cases, they simply ‘plug-in’ to rather than as an additive to bricks-andthe centres’ omnichannel platforms, mortar. assuming these are available. He gives “Take leasing, for example,” he says. examples: “Look at food and F&B. The “Any new retailer today is likely to have Panthera RiverShop platform is being come from an ecommerce world. rolled out for our specialty food and They’ll have a website, an ecommerce small goods retail with order and platform; by the time they come to deliver y, unified check-out, loyalty, be talking about a physical store, booking and community pages. We they will already have a business work in partnership with our retailers history from online sales.” to ‘on-board’ them on to the platform These new retailers, he says, are and assist them in transforming their moving to embrace digital/online retail business into an omni-channel offering.” as a way to access shoppers and to COPYRIGHT©
2020 SHOPPING CENTRE NEWS – ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
16/11/20 4:19 pm
