Profile: Panthera Group

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…

At a time when most of us in our industry 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 interviewed 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. 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

Camal has a different ordering technology RiverShop mindset to the traditional shopping centre owner/ manager. He talks about reduce fixed costs such as bricks-andthe digital world constantly, using words mortar lease payments. Other retailers, and phrases such as ‘digital natives’, many already operating shops in ‘omni-channel platforms’, ‘shopping centres, are less attuned to digital/ centre eco-systems’ and ‘integrating online platforms and do not have the physical and digital’. He’s got the digital understanding, the time or capital to and ecommerce world at the forefront, embrace this new form of retail. In rather than as an additive to bricks-and- such cases, they simply ‘plug-in’ to mortar. the centres’ omnichannel platforms,

“Take leasing, for example,” he says. assuming these are available. He gives “Any new retailer today is likely to have examples: “Look at food and F&B. The come from an ecommerce world. Panthera RiverShop platform is being They’ll have a website, an ecommerce rolled out for our specialty food and platform; by the time they come to small goods retail with order and be talking about a physical store, delivery, unified check-out, loyalty, they will already have a business booking and community pages. We history from online sales.” work in partnership with our retailers

These new retailers, he says, are to ‘on-board’ them on to the platform moving to embrace digital/online retail and assist them in transforming their as a way to access shoppers and to business into an omni-channel offering.”

What differentiates this 'new approach' entry from the traditional players, is simply its emphasis on the centre’s digital power.

Whereas a food court operator may have a website and/or an ordering platform (such as Uber Eats or Menulog), Panthera sees the opportunity of the centre itself making the offering through its own channels as local distribution hubs; taking the order, managing the logistics, delivering, then storing the data and even using AI analytics to understand shopper behaviour. Using that information, Panthera can then structure focused promotions to drive shopper pedestrian traffic on ‘slow’ days and create community loyalties by working in partnership with the retailers. In this way, says Camal, they prevent cannibalisation of their retailers’ margins by the excessive charges of the standalone retail platforms and other ‘outside’ operators. Panthera Group is in growth mode; it’s looking for centres. Its platforms and systems are not confined to its own centres; they see a future in which their group may take over the digital operations of centres they do not own. They’re ‘young bloods’ right now, but they’re worth watching. We’ll follow them; watch this space! SCN

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