A1 - Land Securities

THE RETAIL MAGAZINE FROM LAND SECURITIES | WINTER 2009

St David’s Dewi Sant opens

Brand Empire

Clear and simple

FROM TWITTER TO THE TILLSHow retailers are making the most of social networking

16 Crystal clear Ever wish the entire leasing process was a

lot more simple? It is now thanks to Land Securities’ new Clearlet tenancy agreements.

18 Meeting the challenge Retail MD, Richard Akers on the challenges of

environmental sustainability, rent reform and investment in future shopping centres.

20 Cardiff lifts off The St David’s Dewi Sant centre in Cardiff

opens for business.

23 Competition Win £500 of John Lewis vouchers.

24 It’s all about teamwork Behind the scenes at St David’s Dewi Sant in

Cardiff as the management team prepare for opening day.

04 News Recent news, key openings, events and awards.

06 Bites News and snippets from the world of retail.

08 Latest lettings The very latest retailers signed up to Land

Securities developments.

10 Hot shop: What’s cooking? Jamie Oliver’s new retail project combines a

deli, a kitchenware shop and a cooking school.

12 World of interiors A new glossy book on store design proves

retailers are still innovating.

14 From Twitter to the tills British retailers are using social networking

websites to draw in customers. Facebook, Twitter and the like are helping boost business.

Are online social media taking over the world? Judging by the amount of time everyone spends on Facebook, Twitter, Bebo and the like, you’d be forgiven for thinking so. These new media have even made massive inroads into the world of retail, as our feature From Twitter to the tills (page 14) explains. Elsewhere in this issue we look at how Land Securities is simplifying the entire leasing process for its occupiers; how we’re enticing the very best overseas retail brands to the UK; how we’ve embarked on rent reform; and why investment in future shopping centres is looking brighter than ever. Talking of future shopping centres, don’t miss details of the latest Land Securities development to open, St David’s Dewi Sant, in Cardiff. See page 20. RICHARD AKERS, MANAGING DIRECTOR, RETAIL

Contents

Alma Media International Rayner’s Court, 737 Garratt Lane London SW17 0PD T +44 (0)20 8944 1155 / www.almamedia.co.uk

Editor Dominic Bliss Publisher Tony Richardson / [email protected] Design Deep / www.deep.co.uk

Images Land Securities, Next, Republic, TK Maxx, John Lewis Partnership, Apple, Cocoperez.com, Leon, Hollister, LK Bennett, Jamie’s Italian, Recipease, Marks & Spencer, Stores 09, French Connection, Monsoon, Superdry, Natural Kitchen, Dominic James and Twitter.

For Land Securities Tom Foulkes [email protected] T +44 (0)20 7024 5089

Claire Reynolds [email protected] T +44 (0)20 7747 2390

© Alma Media International Ltd 2009

All material is strictly copyright and all rights are reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without the written permission of Alma Media International is strictly forbidden. The greatest care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of information in this magazine at the time of going to press, but we accept no responsibility for omissions or errors. The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of Alma Media International or Land Securities.

26 Come to Britain A new Land Securities retail venture aims

to entice top brands to the UK.

28 The work-shop balance Faulty irons, St Paul’s Cathedral and driving in

rural Oxforshire: all in a day’s work for Land Securities’ Retail Manager London Portfolio.

30 The retail therapists The burning issues in retail at Land Securities,

as discussed by their top asset managers. 32 Arts in the city Plans are afoot for an interactive art

installation at the new TrinityLeeds shopping centre in Leeds. Professional artists (and locals) will be encouraged to daub it with their art.

34 Retail portfolio A quick overview of our retail centres and

developments.

News

Products on sale include furniture, lighting,

bedroom and bathroom accessories, kitchenware,

electrical goods, and white goods. The store also

features ‘customer access terminals’ which allow

shoppers to browse the full John Lewis range online.

“Our research identified Poole as a good

catchment,” says Andy Street, Managing Director

at John Lewis. “Land Securities was able to

accommodate us very quickly. Christmas trading

will be a key indicator for us to decide how soon

we should expand the format across the country.”

John Lewis has chosen The Commerce Centre,

Poole, in Dorset, as the site of its very first John

Lewis At Home store. The retailer’s new stand-alone

home and electricals shop is spread across

40,000 sq ft at the Land Securities development

in Branksome, alongside Homebase, Boots and

Laura Ashley. If successful, it will be the prototype

for further At Home outlets all across the UK.

The company says it has already identified between

30 and 50 potential towns where demand for such

a store would be high.

Home from home

The City is changing

Land Securities is changing the face of the City of London.

One New Change is bringing an unprecedented mix of uses

and pioneering design to the capital city. October saw the

topping out ceremony which celebrated construction reaching

its highest point.

Due for practical completion in September 2010, One New

Change will provide four floors of office space and three floors

of retail, bringing a new dynamic to the area and celebrating

both modern and historic architecture.

Up to 750,000 people visit St Paul’s Cathedral each year, while

footfall in the vicinity reaches the millions – One New Change

is ideally located to transform their experience. Nearly half of

the 65 shop and restaurant units have already been let to the

likes of Hobbs, Reiss, H&M, Marks & Spencer and Topshop.

It is part of the regeneration of the City of London, and

One New Change will be particularly transformational due

to its retail offering.

One New Change, Topping Out Ceremony, 13th October 2009

News 05

Cabot Circus pushes green button

Bristol’s flagship shopping centre,

Cabot Circus, has won an award for its

environmental sustainability. At this

year’s Estates Gazette Green Awards

the Land Securities scheme – a joint

venture with Hammerson plc – won

in the Overall Green Development of

the Year category.

Launched in 2008, the EG Green Awards

are designed to reward sustainable

property development, and to raise

awareness of environmental issues.

Bites

Bite size 07

When it comes to placing top executives

in the UK retail industry, headhunters wield

enormous power.

RETAIL POWER

Lesley Exley has hunted some of the finest

heads in the retail business. MD of Exley

Hervey, an executive search agency in

London, she has placed senior staff at the

likes of Fortnum & Mason, Fat Face, Banana

Republic, Ann Summers, The White

Company, Christie’s and Fabergé. She and

her colleagues specialise in retail, luxury

brands, consumer brands and e-commerce.

“We are a boutique agency, so while we

don’t place huge numbers of candidates, we

do place the top executives in the top retail

jobs,” she says.

Lesley has held a few top jobs of her own.

After working in brand management for

L’Oréal, the International Gold Corporation

and Waterford Wedgwood, she took up her

first retail role at Zales jewellers.

The job that firmly cemented her place in

big-time retail was in 1992 when she was

appointed marketing director of Selfridges.

“When I joined, the store was like Are You

Being Served?,” she says. “It was nearly 100

years old and part of this huge conglomerate.

Our team put together the business strategy

for transforming it into a destination

department store for the next century.”

Thanks to hands-on experience in sectors

as diverse as jewellery, ceramics, textiles,

fashion, beauty and, in the case of Selfridges,

just about everything else, Lesley says she

understands the massively different cultures

of the companies she headhunts for. Ensuring

that potential executives match these

varying cultures is, she believes, the main

reason for Exley Hervey’s success. She claims

her company is now one of the top boutique

headhunters in the UK, and “fast becoming

known for our expertise in e-commerce”.

Lesley lives in west London with her

husband and their teenage daughter.

POUNDS PER SQUARE INCH

Which UK stores are taking the most cash per area of shopfloor?

It’s all very well having a huge turnover, but if your store is the size of a football

pitch then that turnover can become diluted by expensive overheads. One large

London store, however, is reaping enormous sales despite its massive floorspace.

The Apple store, on London’s Regent Street, stretches 28,000 square feet across

two floors, yet its tills still ker-ching to more than £60 million a year in takings –

that’s over £2,100 per square foot. According to retail research company Verdict

Research, this is one of the highest turnovers per area – or sales densities, as

they’re known – in the whole country.

“Whether it is actually the highest in the country, however, is rather open

to debate,” says the research company’s consulting director Neil Saunders.

“There may well be luxury jewellers or niche high-end clothing stores with

higher density numbers.”

What about some of the better known UK stores? Yes, you guessed it: Tesco is

the big boy (see graph below), with an average of £1,232 in takings per square

foot. Close behind is Sainsbury’s at £1,012. Then comes Harrods at £775, Selfridges

at £655 and John Lewis at £640.

Fashion bloggers are the new masters when it comes to

which clothes we buy and lust after. But of the thousands

of blogs out there, which are the most unmissable?

1

WHATKATIEWORE.COM

Scottish blogger Katie Mackay

has challenged herself to

wear a different outfit every

day for a year. The results

enjoy something of a cult

following on her website, with

over 1,500 page views a day.

“Sometimes it’s just a random

assortment of brightly

coloured things pulled

together by a piece of

jewellery or silly tights,”

says the 20-something self-

confessed shoe-hoarder.

She apparently has over

200 pairs in her wardrobe.

3

COCOPEREZ.COM

Perez Hilton knows a thing

or two about celebrity gossip,

as anyone who has seen the

infamous perezhilton.com

(aka “Hollywood’s most

hated website”) will testify.

His new blog, cocoperez.com,

concentrates on the fashion

side of celebrity. Just as

bitchy, and just as funny, it’s

essential surfing for anyone

who wants to keep up with

what outfits the rich and

famous are sporting.

2

THESARTORIALIST.COM

Scott Schuman has been

hailed by GQ magazine as

“one of the most influential

style bloggers on the planet”.

His massively popular blog,

thesartorialist.com, posts

photos of ordinary people

wearing cool clothes, shot

mainly on the streets of New

York and London. Here’s Scott

on British men’s style: “Man,

you British just love a pale

pink shirt. It’s tough because

it blends into your skin and it

looks as if you’re only wearing

a tie around your neck.”

4

STYLEBUBBLE.TYPEPAD.COM

10,000 readers a day and

rising. Fashion blog Style

Bubble (posted by London

journalist Susie Bubble, aka

Susie Lau) has been attracting

fans across Europe, USA and

Asia ever since it launched

three years ago and is now

considered essential reading

for even mainstream

fashionistas. Susie lists the

following as her favourite

accessories: Salvatore

Ferragamo bow flats, grey

jersey T-shirt that hangs right,

a proper pair of black opaque

tights, vintage slip dresses/

skirts and some well-fitting

leather gloves.

SHOPULAR CULTURE

WHERE I BUY MY ESSENTIALS

E-commerce is severely threatening high street bookshops. But these three Land Securities

employees are still happily browsing. They’re rather fond of their shoes, too.

WHERE I BUY MY ESSENTIALS

ANDREW RAWLINGS Portfolio Manager

For nearly two decades now, I have pawed over the shelves of Galloway and Porter, in Cambridge.

Not only is it a hybrid discount bookshop, but it has over three floors of fiction and non-fiction, as

well as a fantastic collection of history, art and poetry books. It’s great for the self-indulgent reader

or to buy presents for that great aunt with a literary bent.

With a shoe size of only six and a half, this does prove a challenge. Being an avid bargain hunter

I usually visit TK Maxx. There’s a great one at Willow Place, the shopping centre I look after in Corby.

How is it you can buy a pair of hand-made Italian shoes for under £50?

ShARoN MooRE PA at Land Securities Retail

I’m a crime novel junkie, so a trip to Waterstone’s (in The Grand Building, on London’s Trafalgar

Square) is a must for me on a regular basis, especially when they have their ‘3 for the price of 2’ offers.

Staff are knowledgeable and happy to help search for a specific item, or order it if it’s not in stock.

I prefer the tactile approach to books, browsing before I buy, so I don’t often purchase on-line.

I love buying shoes, even though I’m no longer able to wear the high heels I used to. There’s a

beautiful shoe shop in Scarborough called Pavers Shoes (on Westborough), and when I’m visiting

I try to pick up one or two pairs. The service is excellent and they are very patient. I usually try five

or six pairs and then attempt to whittle them down to one or two. Their shoes are always just

a little different and I’m less likely to bump into anyone wearing the same pair.

NICK PEEL Head of Retail Property Management

For books I mainly use Waterstone’s, in Harrogate, my home town. Their multi-buy promotions at

holiday periods are always very competitive and include a broad choice. With three children under

the age of seven, we spend every weekend buying children’s books of varying age levels. My kids

seem to be eating them at present, and they are on first-name terms with the staff.

Don’t laugh, but I have one foot slightly bigger than the other. Freak! So when it comes to

shoes, half sizes and soft but hard-wearing leather are important. For work shoes I use Hoopers,

a department store in Harrogate, which has a fabulous men’s department. My choice in recent years

has been Prada, but since I’m a Scotsman, they usually have to be in the sale. For casual shoes

I stock up from Camper, in Dublin, when we visit a couple of times a year. Source: Verdict Research

£0

£300

£600

£900

£1200

£123

2

£101

2

£775

£655

£640

£611

£503

£446

£417

£362

£217

£134

Sales density (£ per sq ft)

08 Lettings update

John Grimes

Retail Leasing Director

Keith Stone

Alliance Leasing Director

John Grimes, this marks the start

of a wider leasing programme that

will reposition the centre within

Liverpool’s retail hierarchy.

New Street Square, London EC4

Situated just off historic Fetter Lane

in central London, New Street Square

is an office campus with retail and

dining attached, catering for high-

earning City workers based in the

five nearby office buildings.

“There’s a big lunch trade and

brands that suit the market, including

Hotel Chocolat and Corney &

Barrow,” says David Atcherley-Symes,

Retail Manager for Land Securities’

London portfolio.

The award-winning Italian café

Caffé Vergnano has just been signed,

while organic café Pod is opening

in November, bringing some

individuality and wider choice to

the centre. Hair and beauty specialist

Chequers is opening in February

next year, offering Clarins facial

treatments, waxing and tanning

to busy office workers.

One New Change, London

This high-profile mixed-use

development in a stunning City

of London location is taking shape

as it heads towards the planned

October 2010 opening. One New

Change will offer state-of-the-art

office accommodation and more

than 60 retail units over three

floors, all on the doorstep of

St Paul’s Cathedral.

Atcherley-Symes expects a raft of

exciting retail and restaurant names

to be announced very soon.

St David’s Dewi Sant, Cardiff

Welsh shoppers are relishing the

choice of over 150 new shops, cafés

and restaurants at the major St David’s

Dewi Sant development, which opened

successfully on October 22nd in

the heart of Cardiff. Delivered by

Land Securities in partnership with

Capital Shopping Centres, it boasts

the extensively re-landscaped external

street The Hayes, bisected by a

series of retail-rich thoroughfares.

“The scale and impact of St David’s

Dewi Sant needs to be seen to be

believed,” says Keith Stone, Leasing

Director at Land Securities. “John

Lewis has opened a fabulous store.

The development will have a significant

impact on retailing in Cardiff.”

Cardiff is one of the largest cities in

the UK and a European capital. In spite

of the testing economic conditions,

over 70 per cent of floorspace is

already committed, providing an

exciting mix of fashion, major stores,

department stores, cafés and

restaurants. In September John Lewis

chose this location to open its largest

department store outside of London,

and already trading is well above

expectations. Debenhams has extended

its outlet to create one of the chain’s

largest stores in the UK, while Marks

& Spencer provides the third anchor.

H&M and New Look have taken

major flagship stores, ensuring fashion

fans will flock to the centre. The

external area, The Hayes, is almost

fully let. It will include brands new to

Cardiff such as Hugo Boss, Crew and

accessories favourite Radley. All stand-

alone stores, they will sit alongside

other fashion draws such as All Saints,

Fat Face, Links of London, Reiss and

LK Bennett. The restaurant Jamie’s

Italian is also joining the party.

In the Grand Arcade, which sweeps

from north to south through the

centre, the fashion line-up is already

looking very impressive. All four of

the Aurora brands – Coast, Karen

Millen, Warehouse and Oasis – are

represented, joining Cult, Fenchurch

and Quiksilver, among others.

The Apple store had a sensational

opening day with extensive queues

down the Arcade.

Cabot Circus, Bristol

Bristol’s Cabot Circus scheme has

gone from strength to strength since

it opened in September last year.

The Bristol Alliance (Land Securities

& Hammerson) own over 1.5 million

sq ft of retail floorspace in the city

centre and over 30 new shops have

opened across the estate since the

opening of Cabot Circus. Abercrombie

& Fitch’s sister brand Hollister has

taken a 9,200 sq ft store which will

open in December.

Other new names include The

North Face, Gant, Jones the

Bootmaker, Sainsbury’s, Currys and

PC World.

Clayton Square, Liverpool

Clayton Square is in the heart of

Liverpool’s retail quarter and

shoppers and tourists can expect

to see a host of new names arriving

here in Spring 2010. Electronics

brand Maplin and Mothercare/ELC

have signed up to 2,500 sq ft and

15,000 sq ft units respectively.

According to Retail Leasing Director

It’s fashion and food all the way as new businesses make the most of retail developments in Cardiff, Bristol, Liverpool and London.

St David’s Dewi Sant

Cardiff

John Lewis

Debenhams

Hollister

H&M

New Look

Hugo Boss

Crew

Radley

All Saints

Fat Face

Reiss

LK Bennett

Jamie’s Italian

Coast

Karen Millen

Warehouse

Oasis

Cult

Fenchurch

Quiksilver

Apple Store

Links of London

TGI Fridays

Yo! Sushi

Cabot Circus

Bristol

Hollister

The North Face

Gant

Jones the Bootmaker

Sainsbury’s

Currys

PC World

Clayton Square

Liverpool

Maplin

Mothercare

ELC

New Street Square

London EC4

Hotel Chocolat

Corney & Barrow

Caffé Vergnano

Pod

Chequers

Some of the latest lettings at Land Securities Retail

David Atcherley-Symes

Retail Manager

Latest lettings

Jamie Oliver’s latest retail project combines a delicatessen, a kitchenware shop and a cooking school. The new south London branch is so impressive that it has won the prestigious Land Securities’ Best UK Retail Interior at this year’s Retail Interiors Awards, as John Ryan discovers.

From the outside it almost suggests food porn. The front of Jamie

Oliver’s new “food and kitchen emporium” – Recipease, in south

London – features an unmissable, powder pink façade, while the

shop window is crammed with cookbooks, crockery and delicious,

wholesome food.

The location, in Battersea, near the very upmarket Northcote

Road, is perfect: there are dozens of specialist food retailers and

delicatessens along this stretch, all very popular with the young

professionals and families that live in the adjoining streets.

Step inside and you’re not quite sure where to look. After

wading through the display racks and counters filled to the brim

with gorgeous-looking jams, relishes, bottles of wine, kitchenware,

crockery and (of course) lots of Jamie Oliver-branded books

and cooking products, you then find yourself at a huge, cooking

station, slap bang in the middle of the shop floor. Atop the marble

work surfaces are tubs of peppers and lemons. Perched on the

canopy above are dozens of spice jars. Spoons and other kitchen

implements hang down.

Recipease is the latest brand extension from the cheeky

TV chef. It’s designed to offer fine ingredients, the tools to

cook them and tuition in how best to prepare them. Overall

it’s a stunning shop, good enough to sweep the board at this

year’s Retail Interiors Awards, picking up gongs for Best Visual

Merchanding, Best Small Shop and the grand prix Land Securities

Best UK Retail Interior.

“Jamie’s very keen to get people involved in working with

and thinking about food,” explains Simon Cochrane, Recipease’s

Managing Director. “When we came to look at how we could

create a store that would allow people to buy food and to learn

how to cook it, we wanted to do something different. We didn’t

want to follow a particular design, so we started from scratch.”

The outcome is a store where food, and all things involved in its

preparation, is displayed in an environment reminiscent of a rural

French or Italian market. Its unique selling point, however, is that

trained chefs will give you lessons in how to cook the food you

buy there, before sending you home with the dishes you create.

Learn how to make Italian-style pizza, for example, or risotto,

or apple pancakes, or mozzarella meatballs, steak, sea bass, pasta,

crumble, pork belly, cottage pie…there’s even an industrial-sized

TV screen on one wall as a teaching aid.

“It’s a buzzing community hub for great food, inspiration and

cooking skills,” says Jamie himself. “Whether you’re a complete

novice or a seasoned pro, you can come here to ask questions,

learn new skills, get inspiration and try some really fantastic food.

Come in, do a lesson, grab a great dinner to take home, or just

nosey around, picking up inspiration.”

Cochrane says that between 25 and 30 per cent of Recipease

customers come for a cookery lesson. While the ingredients on

sale are certainly not cheap, he stresses that his clientele will

be saving money by eating at home instead of in a restaurant.

This, he adds, is the justification for opening the shop during

tough economic times.

That said, walk through this part of south London and it’s

almost as if the financial crisis never happened. The area is filled

with young professionals and their families, many on a mission

to shop for quality food. Fantastic visual merchandising and a

shop fit-out where nothing has been left to chance, would seem

to indicate that Recipease is in for the long game. The Battersea

store opened in March, and a second branch came to Brighton,

two months later.

“It’s a buzzing community hub for great food, inspiration and cooking skills.” Jamie Oliver

Hot shop 11

Despite the effects of the recession, store design around the world

continues apace. All throughout the financial tumult of the last

year or so, retailers have been unveiling glamorous new interiors

at the top end of the spectrum and, further down the food chain,

new formats with true popular appeal have continued to appear.

So when it came to choosing the last year’s best 50 stores for

a new book, the task was one of editing, rather than a desperate

scramble to seek out novelty.

Some of the projects were so stunning that they virtually

selected themselves: House of Barbie in Shanghai, for example,

or the Primark stores in Bristol and Bremen, and Uniqlo’s highly

contemporary structure in Tokyo’s Shinjuku neighbourhood.

But there has been excellent work in all sectors. Both big and

small retailers have been pulling out the design stops to ensure

they remain competitive. For this, the third book in Land

Securities’ ‘Stores’ series, the view was that there are now

sufficiently strong trends to separate the store designs into

different themes.

So, rather than just being a coffee-table volume, Stores 2009

features different sections ranging from ‘Green’ and ‘Luxury’, to

‘Pop-up’ stores and ‘Visual Merchandising’. The aim is to inform

as well as entertain.

The other task that is always something of a headache when

putting together a book of this nature is imagery. Fortunately

almost all of the chosen retailers were happy to supply

photography that captures the essence of their stores. Where this

was not possible they allowed photo shoots at very short notice.

At the top end, it would be hard to look at 2009 without

mentioning Regent Street’s National Geographic store. This is

that rare beast, a store that caters for luxury shoppers, but

which is accessible to all. As a design, the internal landscape is

startling, whether it’s the bazaar-style café, the shipping crate-

turned-chiller unit in which customers can test thermal clothing,

or the first floor’s map and book area. While you often hear store

designers talking about shopping journeys, National Geographic

offers its customers something rather better: a voyage. It’s an

environment in which a 19th-century explorer back from his

travels might feel at home.

The store makes much of sustainability, something that is

writ large in another new London shop: Timberland, in Westfield

London, Shepherd’s Bush. From the outside this looks like a giant

wooden puzzle, or perhaps an outsized version of the brand’s

abstract tree logo. It’s an extraordinary piece of retail architecture

which, inside, pays homage to the environment. Graphics

emphasise the provenance of almost every element of the

store’s interior.

Urban Outfitters’ store in Land Securities’ Cabot Circus scheme

in Bristol also impresses with its green mindset. The interior has

the usual flair associated with the brand, but it’s the use of natural

and sustainable materials that really set this one apart.

Further afield, Sir Philip Green’s New York expedition, with the

April opening of Topshop in the city, stands as the prime example

of how a strong brand can cross continents and create almost

exactly the same wow factor as back home.

And finally, if you were to open Stores 2009 at random, your

attention would almost certainly be caught by Copenhagen’s

Monki. This is a fashion store peopled by soft creatures called

Monkis. It’s a value offer, but no prices are displayed and it lacks

any kind of in-store navigation. Oh yes, and the Monkis are made

from a cocktail of chemicals found in the “city of oil and steel”,

apparently. Go figure.

It’s clear, then, that store design, even in financially ice-bound

times, continues to form a major part of retailers’ armouries.

And if you don’t like a design, just wait a while. There’ll be

something new in a few weeks or so.

By rights, the world of store design should have ground to a halt in 2009. But the Stores 2009 book, from Land Securities, proves that retailers are still innovating. John Ryan reports.

World of

Regent Street’s National Geographic store has a bazaar-style café and a shipping crate-turned-chiller unit in which customers can test thermal clothing. It’s an environment in which a 19th-century explorer back from his travels might feel at home.

Store design 13

interiors

All images from Stores 2009

Left to right: Topshop, New York; Monki, Copenhagen;

Timberland, London.

To receive a copy of Stores 2009 please email

[email protected]

experts sound a note of caution. “Using social media for

ongoing interaction with customers is fantastic, but the store

experience must follow through or all the effort has been

wasted,” says Simon Boydell, Marketing Manager at customer

service experts Retail Eyes. “Carefully nurtured brand allegiance

can all be ripped apart instantly by someone going into a store

and receiving bad service.”

Boydell also argues that discount alerts sent by text or

customer service updates Tweeted from a distant CEO will

never carry the weight of helpful advice and product knowledge

received face-to-face in store. “Assistants in the O2 shop,

for example, who guide you to the most suitable phone then

become the embodiment of the O2 brand,” he says. “You’ll return

to a specific shop because of the great service someone gave

you. And the more mainstream online shopping becomes, the

more important it will be for the bricks and mortar retailers

to get their customer service right.”

Hard evidence of sales being boosted by marketing Tweets

or social networks has yet to emerge, but it’s clear that social

media can only ever be part of the wider picture in retail brand-

building and customer engagement. As one wise Twitter user

recently said: “Embarking on a social media strategy to help

with marketing is like embarking on a facial muscle strategy

to help with smiling.”

platforms, as a means of listening to what customers are saying,

and responding appropriately,” he says.

Mobile phone retailers love the idea of using online forums

as a means of gauging customer opinions and solving service

problems as quickly as they can. Carphone Warehouse now posts

customer complaints on its website for all to see, with CEO

Charles Dunstone extolling the virtues of transparency in the

business. This summer Phones4U went live with www.theubar.

com, an online forum with real-time customer dialogue which

they use to gather feedback on their products and services, and to

teach customers how to use their phone hardware and software.

Social networking is a growing phenomenon in fashion

retail, too. Burberry, for example, recently launched

www.artofthetrench.com in a bid to strengthen customer

relationships, and now has over 690,000 fans on Facebook,

so is keen to tap into this consumer interest more directly.

“These might not even be customers yet,” says Chief Executive

Angela Ahrendts. “Or they may be a customer for a bottle of

fragrance or for eyewear. But these are the customers who need

the brand experience, who need to feel the brand. That word-of-

mouth spreads through their social networks and continues to be

a positive conversation [about Burberry]. That is so powerful.”

Mobile internet applications take the relationship a stage

further, offering signed-up customers the chance to browse and

shop on the move from their smart phones. In June, high street

favourite Oasis, for example, launched a mobile shopping

application in conjunction with Apple’s iPhone.

Few retailers can afford to ignore these developments in

mobile technology, and the potential power of marketing

through Facebook, Twitter and the like. But customer service

Domestic dramas are being played out live on Asda’s social

networking site your.asda.com. Evonne Gaittens from Motherwell

desperately wants gluten-free porridge for her 70-year-old celiac

father, but it’s only available in three Scottish branches. David

from Portsmouth can’t understand why it’s so hard to find beef

burgers with no onion. Bob Burbridge from Liverpool was after a

vegan food list from his local store but to no avail, until his plight

was picked up on the website and the required list posted online.

British retailers have revealed a host of cutting-edge social

networking initiatives this year in the hope of edging closer to

their customers. Asda’s site went live this August and is now

giving users access to product guides, blogs from senior staff

members, customer feedback forums, a live Twitter feed and

a video and photo gallery.

“Asda wanted to move with the times and show people what

we were doing with more user-friendly content,” says an Asda

spokesman. It’s certainly fun and accessible, with customers

posting pictures of their kids asleep in trolleys, for example,

or Asda publicising store appearances by Peter Andre and the

launch of new George fashion ranges, all the while dealing

publicly with individual customer requests. The supermarket

now has 1,686 Twitter followers who receive messages such as

“Bishop of Reading says Jesus would have shopped at Asda”

or “We’ve peeled back banana prices to 1995 levels”.

Chris Lake, from Econsultancy.com, is a digital marketing

specialist. He applauds retailers for embracing the new

technology, but hopes it will be used for “two-way

conversations”, not just for pushing marketing messages,

or replicating the content of email and direct mail marketing

campaigns. “Social networks should be viewed as engagement

Facebook, Twitter, Bebo and all manner of online customer forums… British retailers are attracting more and more customers through social networking websites. Alison Clements discovers how it all works.

Retailers network online 15

Asda’s social networking website has customers posting pictures of their kids asleep in trolleys, for example, or Asda publicising store appearances by Peter Andre and the launch of new George fashion ranges.

From Twitterto the tills

tweet 20% OFF

Newrange

Sale

Keep them sweet with Tweets

Here are the kinds of messages that retailers are sending

out to their customers.

Topshop

Like the Christopher Kane dress Alexa Chung wore on her

MTV show last night? http://bit.ly/178Zvc You can get it

here http://bit.ly/YFq3J

Selfridges

Heads up to Manchester beauty queens, Dolce & Gabbana

make-up now available at Trafford as of this week!

The Conran Shop

The Conran Shop invites you to the ‘New Philippe Starck’s

Parrot Zikmu’ launch at our Chelsea store tomorrow

6pm-8pm. [email protected]

Office

Hark back to days gone by and revisit the 40s with an

Office twist! http://bit.ly/Hk0w7

Debenhams

We’re donating 20 per cent of the sale of selected Blue

Zoo products to children’s charities – see them here

http://bit.ly/tXT1R

Asda

From today you can book a winter flu jab in an Asda

in-store pharmacy for just £8: http://bit.ly/3i3Ib

Superdry

Have you seen Superdry’s new Facebook album? Famous

Fans of Superdry – check it out! http://bit.ly/7ASBd

ASOS

We’re loving French Connection’s fab frocks – perfect for

party season: http://bit.ly/fabfrocks Spot the 4 exclusive-

to-ASOS designs...

ww

Tenancies 17

Clive Ashcroft

Head of Legal Services

The average tenancy agreement is never likely to read like the

latest Harry Potter novel, but don’t tell that to Clive Ashcroft,

Head of Legal Services at Land Securities. He is a man with a

mission – to make Land Securities’ retail leases as near to child’s

play as humanly possible.

“We did jokingly suggest all our contracts should be

understandable by the seven-year-old son of one of the partners

of the law firms we use,” says Ashcroft, describing how the

company’s Clearlet scheme has evolved. “We may not quite have

achieved that, but a 15-year-old could certainly understand them.”

Ashcroft, who has worked at Land Securities “man and boy”

for 27 years, stresses that Clearlet is “evolutionary rather than

revolutionary”. Land Securities has worked on plain-English versions

of legal documents before and has always been innovative. 15 years

ago, for example, the company was the first to offer tenants a

25-page lease. Nevertheless, the difference Clearlet is making is

already being noticed. “Leases used to go back and forth endlessly

between us and the clients or their lawyers,” Ashcroft adds. “We

might end up with 10 pages of amendments. Now that’s all gone.”

The starting point for the project was the company’s retail

warehouse portfolio. “There was no reason leases on individual

units on an estate should be 70-odd pages long and take weeks

to negotiate,” he says. “Then we thought: If we can make it work

there, why not for our shopping centres as well?”

The new leases are far shorter and outlaw legal jargon such as

“pursuant to” and “thereon” in favour of the everyday language

of “you, me and us”. But getting the language right was only part

of the battle. Ashcroft worked closely with the company’s outside

legal advisors (Dundas & Wilson, Nabarro and Eversheds) to

come up with a lease that would meet all parties’ needs. “I have

to credit Belinda Solomon of Nabarro who produced the first

version of the Clearlet lease,” he says. “I challenged her to come

up with something, then we fought over it hammer and tongs.

She played the tenant and I played the landlord. That’s how we

got down to the issues that really mattered to our occupiers.”

To ensure that he was getting a genuine occupier perspective,

Ashcroft also drew on feedback from Land Securities’ forum of

retailers. Some of the biggest trading names in the UK, including

River Island, H&M, Arcadia, Nando’s and Carluccio’s, who were all

invited to contribute, as were major department stores such as

Debenhams and Marks & Spencer.

Ashcroft calls the result a “customer-focussed approach

to sharing the risk and responsibility” of entering into a lease.

It’s not that Land Securities has gone soft, but it is trying to

make sure it understands its customers’ needs. “One of the things

we have introduced with Clearlet is the option of monthly rents

as standard. The cashflow benefit to our occupiers of monthly

rental payments often outweighs the additional cost and risk to

us so we are improving the efficiency of the relationship.”

Land Securities has also challenged itself to meet clients’ needs

in other respects. If, for example, Land Securities doesn’t respond

to tenants’ applications (change of use, assignment under letting

etc) within a set timeframe, it now grants “deemed consent”.

“It is a huge step for a landlord to make,” says Ashcroft. “But

we believe our systems are robust enough to make it work.”

Equally, the leases themselves are “code compliant”. For

example, they meet the terms of the Commercial Landlords’

Accreditation Scheme. “We took the attitude: okay, we have

signed up to these codes, now let’s live them.”

Clearlet is not intended primarily to drive the market,

but in challenging times it certainly won’t do any harm.

“We want someone new from Europe, for example, to come

to us first,” Ashcroft says. “A very short document that their

lawyers understand reduces the risk to them, and, we become

the landlord who is actively supporting and delivering new

brands, which is fantastic.”

Allan Wernham, a partner at Dundas & Wilson who has

been closely involved, is a strong supporter. “Coming up with a

scheme that is more tenant-friendly from the outset should help

get deals done and rent committed more quickly and easily,”

he says. “That allows us to play a part in Land Securities’ efforts

to build positive relationships with retailers and to stand out

from the competition.”

Indeed, the next stage is to put together a forum of the

legal firms working for retailers to explain to them the benefits

of a simpler lease. “We do want lawyers to buy into this,” says

Ashcroft. And there’s good reason to do so: “If lawyers can make

quicker decisions, that means they make more money.”

For Ashcroft, however, something else matters even more.

“Land Securities has always been an honourable company and

honouring customer focus is now at the very heart of everything

we do on the legal side of the business.”

Land Securities are introducing new lease agreements, under their Clearlet scheme, designed to simplify the entire leasing process. Nigel Billen finds out how it works.

Portfolio 19

Challenging. That’s the word that most sums up

how the market has been since the last issue of

A1 came out in the early summer.

That’s not to say it’s just the market that has

been challenging for us and our customers during

that time. No, it goes further than that. Convention

has been challenged. Established ways of working

have been challenged. Relationships, traditions…

I have never known a time when we and our various

consultants, partners and customers have been so

open to change and innovation.

What I hadn’t anticipated is how positive a

downturn can be. I know I’ll be accused of finding

a silver lining in all of this, but I am convinced

the downturn has presented us with some real

opportunities that will transform our business over

the coming years.

I’ll give you two fairly well publicised examples.

The first is something we spent a lot of time

discussing in the last issue: rent reform in the shape

of monthly rent payments and the subsequent work

we did concerning service-charge reform and the

creation of our 10-point plan. Work has continued

in this area. We’ve really challenged ourselves to

maintain momentum.

The second is the area of environmental

sustainability. We were concerned that the

environmental agenda might be forced into the

background in more austere times, but in fact we’ve

witnessed the contrary: it has just highlighted the

fact that sustainability is not a bolt-on; it is part

of everything we do. Weaving sustainability into

existing practices such as cost control, store

development, buying and recruitment means we

are able to support retailers in a much more

standardised way. It makes all of our efforts more

effective. The sustainability guide attached to this

magazine is evidence of the progress we are making.

There’s been a real thirst amongst our customers

for information. They want to know about the

10-point plan; how we can save them money; how

we can help them achieve their sustainability

objectives; how we can bring them together with

their competitors to achieve synergies. In the

position we occupy as property partner we have

become a real facilitator of change. It’s a role that

demands a lot, and I’m delighted to say that the

team has really stepped up. The feedback I’m getting

from our customers tells me we’re doing a great job.

So what’s next? Where should we expect Land

Securities to concentrate its energies? What’s the

next target of change and reform?

I actually have two targets at the moment. I’m

a little worried about the first – our lease structure

– as I think I might be opening up a Pandora’s Box.

But I think it’s a dysfunction in our industry that

needs to be addressed. We’ve made some

enormous progress in this area recently thanks

to Clearlet [see page 16 for more information], but

I think we can still go a lot further. I may be flirting

with controversy, but I believe that upward-only

rent reviews and security of tenure provision create

a dysfunction that we and our retail customers

could well do without.

Rent reviews are damaging in many ways.

Not just because retailers don’t like them, but

also because objectives can become muddled.

Too often the imperative in the lead-up to rent

reviews is to create evidence and this can be

at the expense of tenant mix and the long-term

attractiveness of a centre to its catchment.

But if we do away with upward-only rent

reviews and move to a turnover rent model, then

we also have to do away with the security of

tenure provision of the Landlord and Tenant Act.

That is the only way to dispense completely with

rents being set based on comparable evidence. We

have learnt from the experience of operating outlet

centres that tenure secured by strong turnover

performance focuses everyone’s minds, leading to a

far closer working relationship with occupiers and

ultimately stronger asset performance. That is

because all interests end up aligned and, in effect,

we become a partner to our occupiers. I would

welcome views on this and think it’s something

we should be debating as an industry.

My second target is to consider how shopping-

centre developments will come about in the future.

How can we deliver schemes like Cardiff, Bristol or

Birmingham? How can we deliver schemes that are

matched perfectly to the needs and existing fabric

of the cities they occupy, but which require huge

risk capital to make them happen? (Risk capital that

would be difficult to raise in the current market.)

Do we have to wait for a recovery? Will there

ever be a return to a market such as the one we

saw over the last 10 years or so? Or is there

another way?

We’re looking at Tax Increment Financing very

carefully [See sidebar for more info], but it strikes

us that this kind of approach – where in effect you

are spending public money, albeit public money

that hasn’t yet been received – calls for extremely

high principles.

We’re wondering how our industry will respond

to this challenge. How can we ensure that this

vehicle isn’t abused? After all, it could be used as

another way to drive returns from low-cost capital

without considering the wider community benefits.

If we are handed this responsibility then I am

confident that, just as it will unlock schemes that

would otherwise be unviable, and present us with

great opportunity, so we will demonstrate that we

can act with a level of integrity appropriate to the

responsibility. I can guarantee that the team at Land

Securities with experience of working in partnership

with local authorities since 1946 will ensure that

every decision and action is in the best interests

of all, and that schemes delivered in this way are

the catalysts of further change and development.

(Just as we have achieved in Exeter, Bristol and

many other cities.)

This responsibility for investment of other

people’s money is something we are used to.

Thanks to our experience of the service-charge

reform, it’s an area where the integrity of our

team will best position us for the future.

Richard Akers

Managing Director, Retail

• TIFstandsforTaxIncrementFinancing.

• ATIFallowsthepartfinancingofadevelopmentthroughtheissue

of a bond secured against the tax ‘gain’ (from increased business

rates) that will be created by the completed development.

• TIFshavebeenusedasawayoffinancingurbanregenerationand

community development projects in the US since they were

invented in California in 1952.

• YoucanreadmoreaboutthepotentialapplicationofTIFs

in the UK on the British Property Federation website

(http://snipurl.com/svbva).

What is a TIF?Who says the recession has been all bad news? Richard Akers, MD of Retail at Land Securities, believes that meeting economic challenges head on can lead to improvements in environmental sustainability, rent reform and investment in future shopping centres.

If you wish to discuss any of the

items mentioned in this article

please contact me by email at

[email protected]

St David’s Dewi Sant, Cardiff 21

Ten years of planning and three years of construction all came to fruition at

10.30am on 22 October when the new St David’s Dewi Sant shopping centre

opened for business in Cardiff. As the assembled throng of retailers, local

dignitaries and media called out the final stage of the countdown, retail staff

braced themselves for the first wave of shoppers due to pour in when the main

doors were flung open.

By 10.35am both floors of this flagship development were teeming with

people keen to sample the wares of the 50 or so retailers quick to take up

residence. Particularly those new to Cardiff or Wales, such as Apple, LK Bennett,

Crabtree & Evelyn, Cult, Karen Millen, Pret A Manger, Radley, and Yo! Sushi.

Shoppers were also treated to a five-girl aerial fashion show and ballerinas

on stilts posing for photos. Individual shops staged their own celebrations, too.

The staff at the Apple Store, for example, whooped and cheered the first

thousand customers through their doors, offering each one a free T-shirt.

It was a day of positive messages from every quarter. “The prime location

of St David’s Dewi Sant has rejuvenated this sector of the city,” said Henry

Enos, senior lecturer at Glamorgan University, who specialises in consumer

behaviour. “It’s ideally suited to meet the needs of Cardiff’s consumers.” Open for business

Wales’s finest new shopping centre, St David’s Dewi Sant, opened in Cardiff in late October. Guy Richards witnessed the carnival atmosphere that accompanied it.

Competition 23

It looks amazing from the outside.

But things really start to get

interesting once you step inside

John Lewis’s new Cardiff store.

Berthed like a great, glass luxury

liner, its glazed prow pointing

proudly towards Cardiff’s café

quarter, the new John Lewis store is

stunning, both thanks to its

architecture and its size. It’s John

Lewis’s first store in Wales and, with

a floor space of 280,000 square feet,

its largest outside London.

The architects were Benoy. Their

idea was to create two huge boxes

meeting at angles so that every

aspect of the shop had great visual

impact. “The building is designed

to complement, but stand out from,

the design of St David’s Dewi Sant,

which echoes Cardiff’s Victorian

shopping arcades,” says Dino

Marcangelo, Business Manager New

Shops at John Lewis.

But it’s once you step inside the

huge store that the scope of this

magnificent retail project becomes

apparent. The ‘prow’ – a triangular,

glazed space spanning the shop’s

four floors – initially draws shoppers

into the beauty hall on the ground

level, and opens up three stories of

ceiling space above the Espresso Bar.

Here, shoppers’ eyes are drawn to

what’s known as the ‘shimmer

sculpture’. “It’s a cascade of beads

which mirrors the triangular shape of

the Prow’s apex and catches the

sunlight from its large windows,”

Marcangelo explains.

Much of the glazing of the

windows is printed with a frit

pattern designed by Fusion Glass Ltd

and inspired by traditional Welsh

tapestries. “This not only provides

visual impact, it also reduces sun

glare,” says Marcangelo. “This

improves the building’s energy

efficiency and gives a more

comfortable shopping experience.”

The idea is that customers are

led naturally from one department

of the store to the next. On the

ground floor is the beauty hall;

the first floor features accessories,

fashion, haberdashery and fabrics;

the second floor is given over to

homes and interiors; the third to

nursery, toys, sportswear and

children’s clothing. “Designed with

‘kid appeal’, this floor contains life-

size Harry Potter and Star Wars Lego

models, plus a child-friendly shoe

display,” Marcangelo says.

In an effort to boost its fashion

offer, John Lewis appointed store

designers Dalziel & Pow to create a

luxury look for the store’s fashion

department. Everywhere you look

there are subtle designs aimed

at making the whole shopper

experience more pleasant: the

mannequins, for example, with

their metal frames. Or the counters,

jewellery trees and chandeliers in

the jewellery department. Or the

luxury finish in what’s known as

the “fashion advisory room”.

John Lewis feel its new store is so

impressive that it has been entered

for the Retail Week store design of

the year award.

Never knowingly undersold

The Land Securities Retail competition

Please e-mail answers to:

[email protected] by Friday 29th January

2010. Entrants must be aged 18 or over. UK

residents only. Employees of Land Securities and

Alma Media International and/or their families

are not permitted to enter. Land Securities’

decision is final. For full terms and conditions

e-mail: [email protected]

Simply answer the question above to have the

chance to win £500 of John Lewis vouchers.

The Question: In what year did the first John Lewis store open?

Win £500 to spend at John Lewis

The development has been good news for local job-seekers too, particularly

in these straitened times, by creating around 4,000 posts in retail, catering,

management and security, according to Francis Salway, Chief Executive

of Land Securities.

It’s also come as a welcome boost for the city. “St David’s Dewi Sant is

expected to attract more than £250 million of new spending to Cardiff city

centre each year,” said Rodney Berman, leader of Cardiff City Council. “Cardiff

is now in the top 10 retail destinations in the UK. That’s the difference this

new centre is making to the city.”

Even the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in Wales, some of whose

members were at the heart of the development, has added its blessing. Its

director Cathy McLean said: “The impact of St David’s Dewi Sant on Cardiff will

be immense, with retail tourists coming for the first time and, once they have

sampled it, returning to partake in Cardiff’s other attractions.”

In a similar vein, Marie Fagan, General Manager of the city centre’s only

five-star hotel, the Hilton, stressed how St David’s Dewi Sant would help put

Cardiff on the weekend city-break map. “It will help us as a city to compete

effectively with other key UK cities,” she explained. “It adds another dimension

to what the city has to offer.”

Liz Mihell, Manager of the new John Lewis store, which serves as an anchor

at St David’s Dewi Sant, was equally upbeat. “We had an extremely successful

opening last month,” she said. “The reaction from shoppers has been

outstanding and sales have exceeded expectations.”

The company said takings on the store’s first day were 20 per cent ahead

of target, and while exact figures for the retailers who opened on 22 October

were unavailable at the time of going to press, feedback from them has been

very upbeat.

“Our first day was fantastic. We’re delighted to be in Cardiff,” said Jay

Chapman, Head of Communications at Pret A Manger.

“Amazing,” was the verdict of Kate Basu-Attwood, Store Manager at

LK Bennett. “We’ve had people come in from as far away as Nottingham,

customers who’d normally visit our London store. First day’s takings have

been on target and will be up for the week.”

Gary Thomas, Operations Director for YO! Sushi, said his restaurant had

enjoyed “a fantastic reception”. “Our first day of opening has exceeded our

expectations by 50 per cent.”

So it’s no surprise then that the opinions of the shoppers themselves are

also wholly positive, with declarations such as “What a brilliant place” and

“We love it” among the most common reactions from the 50,000 people

estimated to have passed through the centre’s doors in the first three hours

on that first Thursday.

With more than 30 million visitors expected every year once the centre is

fully established, it looks as if many more shoppers will be bowled over by this

new Welsh retail destination.

“Cardiff is now in the top 10 retail destinations in the UK. That’s the difference this new centre is making to the city.”

St David’s Dewi Sant, Cardiff 25

If you’ve ever seen one of those plate-spinning acts on TV or at

the circus – where the performer has to balance plates on top

of thin wooden poles – then you’ll have some idea of what’s

gone into preparing for the opening of the St David’s Dewi Sant

centre in Cardiff. Only, in this case, there are hundreds of plates

and a whole team of performers spinning them.

As the centre’s director Steven Madeley explained: “Each

member of the management team not only knows whose

responsibilities are whose, but also has a good general overview

of the business, so they’re able to deal with queries outside

of their remit.” That’s a useful – arguably essential – facility

to have in a team of managers who, in this context, are

individually responsible for security and cleaning, marketing,

commercialisation, and retailer liaison.

By the time you read this magazine, the centre will have

opened for business. But at the time of writing, opening day,

October 22, was a little way off, meaning that Madeley and

his team still had a host of issues to manage. “The centre is still

a building site at the moment, so there’s the construction side of

“Carrying over the management team from the original St David’s has been a major plus point for us.The in-house experience we’ve been able to bring has gone a long way.”

things to keep tabs on,” he said. “At the same time, we have loads

of the retailers coming in to set up – and of course each one

thinks they’re the only one in the building.

“And of course we’re in the process of building up our own

security and cleaning teams, about 100 people in all. The security

people, for example, need training in customer service and using

our CCTV systems.”

The project’s schedule left very little room for error. Madeley

said there was a gap of only a few hours between the builders

leaving the site and the shoppers swarming in. So, unsurprisingly,

ask him what his priorities were and this is the response you get:

“They’re all priorities!”

Things were moving so fast in the run-up to the opening, he

said, that the main challenge was keeping everyone up to date

on progress. A key part of his working week were the many

progress meetings, checking what was on track and what wasn’t.

“There’s a kind of ‘steering wheel’ approach to this,” he said,

“where you go round every aspect of the project in turn to make

sure all the lights are still on green, so to speak.”

It’s natural to assume that much of the complexity in the

St David’s Dewi Sant project was down to the sheer size of the

development: 160 stores and 23 restaurants and cafés. Not so,

according to Madeley. Every issue he has had to manage would

still hold true for a smaller development; the issues were just

more involved at St David’s Dewi Sant.

“At the moment though it’s fantastic,” he said. “I get a real kick

out of going on site and seeing how things are progressing from

one day to the next. There’s always something new to see.”

So with that permanent buzz, as the centre grew closer to

completion, was he worried about any post-opening sense of

anti-climax? “It’s true that the daily operation will in a sense

become pretty routine,” he said. “People will come in, work and

shop, then go back home. The challenges change once we are

open – still a lot of work but more focused on the trading

retailers and our customers.”

St David’s Dewi Sant is unusual in that it’s a huge extension –

967,000 sq ft – to an existing centre, of which Madeley was

also the director. But this of course has enabled Madeley and

his team, many of whom also worked at the original St David’s,

to bring their expertise across with them.

“Carrying over the management team from the original St

David’s has been a major plus point for us,” he said. “The in-house

experience we’ve been able to bring has gone a long way.”

This team ethic extends to national level at Land Securities.

Madeley talked of the extended centre team, composed of staff

from Land Securities’ London HQ, as well as experts from other

centres around the UK, all of whom have regularly visited Cardiff

to share their experience. The idea was to cross-fertilise their

knowledge with local knowledge.

There’s nothing unusual in this, Madeley said. In fact the St

David’s Dewi Sant team itself attended the opening of the Cabot

Circus centre in Bristol in September 2008 to gain an insight into

the kind of issues they would face in Cardiff on 22 October.

The great thing about teamwork is that you’re never alone.

Steven Madeley

Centre Director

It’s all about teamwork o

As opening day approaches, things get hectic for the management team at the new St David’s Dewi Sant centre in Cardiff. Guy Richards finds out how the director and his team cope.

International retailers 27

Ronan Faherty

Commercial Director

Land Securities has recruited a big-hitter in international

retail – Sanjay Sharma, previously an International Director at

Karen Millen – to run the venture. Sharma’s role within Brand

Empire is to visit cities across the world and seek out dynamic

retailers with the potential to travel. “We’re interested in

brands that can take on national coverage, not just open one

or two stores” says Faherty.

Clearly the aim is to ensure that exciting new fashion,

footwear and cosmetics brands start off in the right locations.

In the UK, German fashion discounter Takko, for example, would

have a very different target audience to that of upmarket

US lifestyle retailer Anthropologie. Advice on how to market in

different parts of the UK, and inside knowledge about which

schemes offer the most complementary mix of retailers will help

brands gain a solid foothold here.

Matthew Brown is head of research at Echochamber,

specialists in global retail trend-spotting. He believes Brand

Empire could inject much needed energy and originality into

UK shopping districts. “On the global stage the UK is pretty

innovative, but there’s never room for complacency because

British shoppers are always looking for something novel,” he says.

“The cutting-edge brands we are seeing overseas have the

potential to deliver that desired vitality, bringing with them

innovative ideas for store design and merchandising, even a fresh

approach to customer service. This initiative to welcome others

into the market is to be applauded.”

There are countless inspiring retail formats in different corners

of the world, and, according to Faherty, these will give British

shopping centres a more competitive edge. “The timing is

particularly good now as the recession has been a catalyst for

creativity in retail,” he says.

He hopes the first few names taken on by Brand Empire will

be opening their doors to the public starting in the new year.

Land Securities feels there are a number of exciting brands in affluent countries like Brazil, Australia, Russia and Japan that would be a real hit with the British public.

From Aldo to Zara, from Abercrombie & Fitch to Uniqlo, new

brands launching into the UK market have always managed to

spark fresh interest in our shopping centres. Shoppers love the

exoticism of an unfamiliar brand while domestic retailers benefit

from increased footfall and sales when names such as Banana

Republic or Urban Outfitters set up shop nearby.

But are we doing enough to encourage international brands

into the country? And when they do come, are they settling into

the most appropriate centres and reaching the right audiences?

Land Securities feels there are a number of exciting brands in

affluent countries like Brazil, Australia, Russia and Japan that would

be a real hit with the British public. The trouble is, when entering

the UK market, they need a helping hand.

For this very reason Land Securities has established a

new company called Brand Empire whose job is to identify

international retail brands, advise on demographics and suitable

locations across the UK, and help with store openings through

a partnership approach. “We’ve looked closely at the barriers to

entry into the UK,” says Ronan Faherty, Commercial Director at

Land Securities. “We have valuable knowledge to offer brands that

are big in their part of the world, but unfamiliar with this market.

We were planning this venture long before the credit crunch.

It’s very much a long-term strategy.”

Incoming companies often lack local knowledge. They will also

need insights into leasing, and guidance on how to secure space.

Faherty stresses that Brand Empire will benefit the entire British

shopping industry, not just Land Securities’ retail portfolio. “The

brands we’ll be dealing with will want to consider opening right

across the country, so this needs to be all-inclusive,” he says.

“We are already talking to other shopping-centre owners and

developers about how the initiative can help them too.

The reaction has been very positive.”

Faherty continues ‘’For our existing retailers this is all about

complementing the existing retail mix, and not competing.

New international brands will not be getting preferential

treatment into the UK market, what they are really getting

through a partnership approach is our expertise and knowledge.’’

Sanjay Sharma

Chief Executive Brand Empire

Come to Britain

We could soon see a number of exciting foreign retailers in the UK thanks to a new Land Securities venture called Brand Empire. Alison Clements finds out how it works.

Tate Modern

Leon

One New Change

Bankside

Mix

The work-shop balance 29

Oxfordshire Fields

A (retail) day

in the life How do busy employees combine work and shopping?

David Atcherley-Symes, Retail Manager London Portfolio

at Land Securities, talks us through his typical day. Millennium

Bridge

St Paul’s

Cathedra

l

11.30amQuick stroll over the Millennium Bridge to Bankside Mix, our scheme behind the Tate Modern. I meet the manager of an Italian restaurant who’s launching a new menu. He has had a hard time over the last year but is already seeing an increase in sales after our ‘Great British Summer’ marketing campaign which televised the Ashes and Wimbledon on a huge screen mounted on the side of a caravan.Afterwards I look at the vacant units we have there. Filling one won’t be a problem as it overlooks the planned extension of the Tate Modern. The other big one will need some thought, however.

Back over the Millennium Bridge and through St Paul’s Churchyard to New Street Square. I grab a late sandwich at Natural Kitchen. It is quiet at this time of the afternoon, but the manager seems more than happy with the new store. I suppose the 5,000 lawyers and insolvency accountants are busy working in their offices. Then I check my emails and see I have a lease to sign for a café. We have gone for an independent rather than a chain. I feel sure it was the right decision and the shop fit-out looks great.

2 .30am

Park House

Natural KitchenPret A

Manger

6amAlarm as usual. No ironed shirts, so I fetch the ironing board which accidentally wakes the dog. Then I remember the iron is on the blink, so I ponder non-iron shirts. That gets me thinking whether wearing a Lewin shirt with a Hermes tie is the same as dressing up a Primark top with a Prada belt. Sadly I own no Hermes ties.

7.45amAfter an early train I’m at my desk having

already tested the Pret A Manger staff. Why are

they never grumpy at this hour? My first job

is to think about a new iron. Perhaps I can visit

John Lewis at lunchtime. No, instead I settle for

Argos.co.uk so I can have it delivered. Then I

reminisce about how we used to actually go

shopping for irons and how I really don’t miss

retail parks on Saturday mornings.

4pmI walk back to the Land Securities office via Leon restaurant for

a quick discussion with one of their directors about trade and a

crazy new concept which could work well on a couple of our sites.

Then I weigh up the pros and cons of risky new operations versus

staid safe brands. I mentally settle at 60:40 in favour of the nutters.

.30amFirst stop is a new retailer meeting at our new scheme, One New Change, in the City of London. I try to get to all these meetings to see how retailers are feeling about trade in London. This time it is an accessories retailer who also wants a unit at Cardinal Place, in Victoria, another of our London schemes. Glad I went along.After the meeting I climb to the sixth floor of One New Change to get a first view of the roof terrace overlooking St Paul’s Cathedral. It’s stunning. You get a real feel of how the restaurant and public space will work up here.

SuperdryBack in the office, I pack my laptop and head out

again. Friday evenings I often spend wandering the

streets, especially around Covent Garden, looking

at any new retail fascias. I wanted to see the

Superdry unit just off Seven Dials and COS on Long

Acre. I then jump on the bus down Oxford Street,

spotting the Land Securities unit with the new

Currys refit, which looks great.

I then pass our site at Park House, opposite

Selfridges. From the top of the bus I can see

the giant Fiat 500 with its marketing circus.

For Christmas this will be a German market;

after that we can start working on the site again.

At Primark I contemplate getting off the bus and

looking for a non-iron shirt but don’t want to wake

the lump sleeping beside me.

5pm

7pmI’m on the train and at my emails for an hour before driving home across the Oxfordshire fields as the sun goes down. I might go into Oxford tomorrow for a bit of retail therapy. Haven’t been shopping for a while.

David Atcherley-Symes

Retail Manager

The retail management team 31

The retail therapists

What are the burning issues for the team in charge of retail at Land Securities’ key shopping centres? Five of the top asset managers explain.

“Since the start of this year we’ve done nearly 500

individual lettings and lease renewals. That’s around

150 every three months.”

Ashley Blake is upbeat about Land Securities’

retail portfolio, the sector he directs. He joined the

company at the start of this year, but already he

and his team have made great strides. All this despite

the worst economic downturn in living memory.

So what’s the secret to their success? Here they

discuss five key areas where they believe they’ve

been most effective.

1 Tackling retail voids

With huge retailers such as Woolworths and Zavvi

going under, looming gaps have appeared in British

high streets and shopping centres. Land Securities

have been quick to fill these gaps.

Ailish Christian, Portfolio Director South, points

to the Land Securities centres at Corby, Lewisham

and Stratford as good examples of where the

retailer turnaround has been lightning quick.

“Within a couple of months of the demise of

Woolworths, all three were trading with new

retailers,” she says. Corby, for example, took on

Au Naturel and Ethel Austin, while Lewisham

welcomed H&M, and Stratford saw a new 99p

Stores open up – now one of their top performing

stores in the UK.

There were Zavvi stores in Liverpool’s Clayton

Square, Portsmouth’s Gunwharf Quays, Exeter’s

Princesshay and Bristol’s Cabot Circus. Osprey and

HMV have filled two of them, and the other two

are close to finalising deals.

“Filling voids is crucial for us,” says Ashley.

“If a big frontage goes dark, as we say in the

business, that can really suck the life out of a

whole shopping centre.”

2 Shopper profiling

Land Securities have devised an effective way

of dividing their tenants’ customers into different

groups, according to the way they shop. With

help from several retail research companies they

have identified five key groups of shoppers:

no frills cost-cutters, sensible quality-seekers,

complex cosmopolitans, aspiring spenders and

designer junkies.

“We use this to target which tenants we want to

attract,” explains Deepan Khiroya, Portfolio Director

Factory Outlet Centres. “We work out which kind

of shoppers are in our catchment areas and we

target retailers accordingly.”

Ashley stresses how useful this shopper profiling

can be. “It means we can provide shops that the

local population really want,” he says. “We may

discover we have too many fast-fashion outlets in

a particular centre, for example, when in fact what

we really need is more sensible style retailers.”

Shopper profiling has also helped Land Securities

target their advertising more effectively. In

Sunderland, for example, the company realised that

one single TV network, Tyne Tees, covered the exact

region they needed to market to. They found they

could afford to launch a very inexpensive TV

campaign and target their customers precisely. “You

simply couldn’t do that in for Gunwharf Quays in

Portsmouth,” Ashley adds, “because you’d have to

cover three or four different TV regions, which

would be much too expensive.”

3 Direct engagement with retailers

“All of us in the retail team have close relationships

with our retailers,” explains Suzi Clay, Portfolio

Director Major Joint Ventures. “We have regular

face-to-face meetings with them and nurture

those relationships.”

Suzi used to work in retail herself, at B&Q, so she

can assess the situation from both the tenant’s and

the landlord’s point of view. According to Ashley,

it’s this personal touch that keeps the relationships

strong. “It’s not that we’re going soft on our

retailers,” he says. “But we understand we must

constantly engage with them, and work with them,

particularly if they have issues we can solve.”

To understand retailers better, Land Securities

have even been shadowing them at work. Ailish, for

example, spent a day on the shop floor at House of

Fraser. Ashley shadowed the operations director at

John Lewis in Watford for a day. Others from the

department have spent time at Next on London’s

Oxford Street. “It’s all about creating long-term

relationships,” stresses Ashley. “If we just take the

hard, old-fashioned landlord approach, we’ll end up

with more voids and no repeat business.”

4 Repositioning and refurbishing

Land Securities are in the fortunate position

of having what Ashley describes as a “very well

capitalised business”. “We have a fantastic balance

sheet and can afford refurb spend to improve our

centres. When we buy a centre, we have a business

plan and equity ready to improve that centre.

That doesn’t just mean entrances and flooring.

We may also add new space, help tenants expand,

or reconfigure centres to allow new tenants to

come in. Shopping centres are live assets and they

have to be constantly upgraded.”

Aberdeen’s Bon Accord Quarter is a good

example of this. Thanks to Land Securities’ upgrade

of the St Nicholas shopping centre, as well as

Hammerson’s Union Square, much of the Scottish

city is now benefitting from a facelift. “At St

Nicholas we’ve now built quite a fashion hub,” says

Ashley. “There’s Topshop Topman, River Island, Kurt

Geiger, Phase Eight, Karen Millen, Oasis, Warehouse,

Coast and the biggest Next in Scotland. These are

all massive footfall generators.”

Other centres to benefit from refurbishment

include London’s Lewisham Centre, Livingston’s

The Centre and Bristol’s Cabot Circus.

5 Creating destinations

Adventure golf at Cabot Circus, surfing and bowling

at Gunwharf Quays, laser-gun games at Corby…

shopping centres all over the UK are now offering

much more than simple shopping. There are

cinemas, casinos, restaurants, cafes, nightclubs,

ice rinks – all encouraging shoppers to spend

more time, and of course more money.

Restaurants and cafes are a good example.

“Catering increases the dwell time of shoppers

and ensures they stay at the centre beyond

lunchtime and into the afternoon,” explains

Deepan. Evening leisure facilities also help drive

trade, even if they operate long after most of the

shops have shut. “At night you get people coming

to the centre for the cinema or a restaurant,”

explains Ashley. “They may never have been there

before to shop. Then they think ‘Maybe I’ll come

back during the day and check it out’. It’s all about

ensuring our shopping centres are attractive

destinations in their own right.”

The strongest assets

Land Securities’ Retail

Portfolio Management

team oversees the

company’s shopping

centres, factory outlets

high street shops and

hotels. But who are the

faces behind the names?

Ashley Blake

Head of Retail

Portfolio Management

Responsible for 23

shopping centres, four

designer outlets, three

retail blocks and a team

of 23 asset managers

and support staff. In all

that’s 11.8 million square

feet of property worth

£2.6 billion.

Top right

Ailish Christian

Portfolio Director, South

Responsible for the

centres in Stratford,

Lewisham, Welwyn

Garden City, Islington,

Clapham, Wandsworth,

Shepherd’s Bush, Notting

Hill Gate, Corby,

Worcester, Cambridge

and Salisbury.

Top left

Suzi Clay

Portfolio Director,

Major Joint Ventures

Responsible for centres in

Cardiff, Bristol, Exeter,

Taplow and Birmingham,

most of which feature

partnerships.

Bottom left

Gerald Jennings

Portfolio Director,

North and Scotland

Responsible for centres in

Sunderland and York,

three centres in Leeds,

and two in Liverpool.

Bottom right

Deepan Khiroya

Portfolio Director,

Factory Outlet Centres

Responsible for factory

outlets in Portsmouth,

Hatfield, Livingston,

as well as Accor and

Novotel hotels.

Middle right

Katherine Armstead

Portfolio Manager,

Scotland

Responsible for centres

in Livingston, Aberdeen

and Glasgow.

It could end up being the country’s largest work of art. There are plans for the hoarding along

one section of the construction site at Leeds’ new shopping centre, TrinityLeeds, to feature an

industrial-size scroll of paper, hundreds of metres long, onto which artists both professional and

amateur will be encouraged to express themselves. Although council permission hasn’t yet been

granted, it’s hoped the hoarding on Leeds’s Albion Street, along one boundary of Land Securities’

new one million sq ft retail and leisure development, will be adorned with a blank, rolling canvas.

Artists and community groups would be invited to decorate the scroll of paper as they see fit.

“Working with leading art directors Six (www.madebysix.com), we would invite artists to

come and be part of the UK’s largest piece of art,” explains Claire Reynolds, of TrinityLeeds

marketing team. “They could range from well-known artists, or local artists in and around Leeds,

to community groups, universities and schools. Ultimately we’re looking to engage with the

community, re-invigorate Albion Street and turn it into a destination in its own right.”

TrinityLeeds is due to open for business in 2012.

Arts in the city

Corporate social responsibility 33

34 Retail Portfolio Retail Portfolio 35

Location Property name Area sq m (sq ft) Principal contact Phone No.

Location Property name Area sq m (sq ft) Principal contact Phone number Location Property name Area sq m (sq ft) Principal contact Phone number

Shopping Centres Retail Parks

Location Property name Area sq m (sq ft) Principal contact Phone No.

Location Property name Area sq m (sq ft) Principal contact Phone number Location Property name Area sq m (sq ft) Principal contact Phone number

Outlets Developments

Aberdeen Bon Accord/St Nicholas 47,844 (515,000) Katherine Armstead 0141 331 4409

Birmingham Priory Square 26,013 (279,900) Charles Clarke 020 7747 2318

Bristol Cabot Circus 135,000 (1,453,000) Rob Callaghan 029 7024 5414

Cambridge Christ’s Lane* 7,282 (78,350) Andrew Rawlings 020 7747 2336

Cardiff St David’s Shopping Centre 39,735 (427,000) Rob Callaghan 020 7024 5414

Corby Town Centre/Willow Place 68,740 (740,000) Andrew Rawlings 020 7747 2336

Exeter Princesshay 49,256 (530,000) Lucy Lilley 020 7024 5488

Glasgow Buchanan Galleries 57,600 (620,000) Katherine Armstead 0141 331 4409

Leeds Leeds Shopping Plaza 53,670 (557,500) Jonathan Buckle 0113 261 5363

Leeds White Rose 63,170 (680,000) James Larmuth 0113 386 2177

Liverpool Clayton Square 6,553 (180,000) James Larmuth 0113 386 2177

Liverpool St Johns Centre 33,450 (360,000) James Larmuth 0113 386 2177

Livingston The Centre 88,720 (950,000) Katherine Armstead 0141 331 4409

London Shopstop, Clapham 4,170 (44,884) Ailish Christian 020 7024 5066

London N1, Islington 13,006 (140,000) Ailish Christian 020 7024 5066

London Lewisham Centre 34,523 (371,500) Tom Venner 020 7024 5196

London W12, Shepherds Bush 27,127 (291,900) Andrew Rawlings 020 7747 2336

London Stratford Shopping Centre 31,224 (336,000) Tom Venner 020 7024 5196

London Southside, Wandsworth 49,239 (530,000) Ailish Christian 020 7024 5066

Salisbury The Maltings 8,920 (96,022) Anna-Louise Lancaster 020 7024 5411

Sunderland The Bridges 47,840 (515,000) Jonathan Buckle 0113 261 5363

Worcester Cathedral Plaza 19,463 (210,000) Andrew Rawlings 020 7747 2336

* Nine stores only

Glasgow Buchanan Galleries 65,000 (700,000) Nick Davis 020 7024 5203

Leeds Trinity Leeds 92,900 (1,000,000) Bob De Barr 020 7024 5470

Bexhill-On-Sea Ravenside Retail & Leisure Park 24,131 (259,750) Hermione Mackrill 020 7024 5486

Blackpool Blackpool Retail Park 12,782 (137,583) Jack Busby 020 7024 5487

Bracknell The Peel Centre 15,384 (165,592) Nick Duffield 020 7024 5485

Chadwell Heath Goodmayes Retail Park 9,230 (99,000) Jack Busby 020 7024 5487

Chester Greyhound Retail Park 18,859 (203,000) Hermione Mackrill 020 7024 5486

Chesterfield Ravenside Retail Park 9,615 (103,500) Nick Duffield 020 7024 5485

Derby Meteor Centre 16,920 (182,130) Jack Busby 020 7024 5487

Dundee Kingsway Retail Park 27,768 (298,900) Jack Busby 020 7024 5487

Gateshead Team Valley Retail World 35,083 (377,650) Nick Duffield 020 7024 5485

Livingston Almondvale Retail, South&West 35,284 (379,800) Nick Duffield 020 7024 5485

Milford Haven Havenshead Retail Park 6,910 (74,389) Jack Busby 020 7024 5487

Northampton Nene Valley Retail Park 13,657 (147,000) Hermione Mackrill 020 7024 5486

Poole Commerce Centre 19,328 (208,011) Nick Duffield 020 7024 5485

Taplow The Bishop Centre 12,810 (137,895) Charles Clarke 020 7747 2318

Thanet Westwood Cross 44,129 (475,000) Hermione Mackrill 020 7024 5486

West Thurrock Lakeside Retail Park 35,000 (376,778) Hermione Mackrill 020 7024 5486

Workington Derwent, Derwent Howe 13,991 (150,600) Jack Busby 020 7024 5487

Hatfield The Galleria 29,729 (320,000) Deepan Khiroya 020 7024 5436

Livingston Designer Outlet Centre 26,790 (288,300) Deepan Khiroya 020 7024 5436

Portsmouth Gunwharf Quays 39,484 (425,000) Deepan Khiroya 020 7024 5436

1 Million Sq.Ft.100% Prime LocationIn The Heart Of The City

Leeds’ Premier Retail Destination

A development by: In association with:

www.trinityleeds.com

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