Worldwide Business Information and Market Reports

www.the-list.co.uk and www.worldmarketresearch.com

Telephone +44 1404 891528 Fax +44 1404 891717 Email reportfinder @ tiscali.co.uk

Just want contact details for one of the companies in this report? Please don't ring us - try www.companieshouse.gov.uk, www.thomweb.co.uk or www.askalix.com

Join the ReportFinder mailing list and be told of new reports

Email:

MP52201

MAPS RETAIL DEVELOPMENT MAY 2001

Overview

Editor: Market Assessment
ISBN:

Table of Contents

Executive Summary

Back to Wholesaling & Retailing Index

Back To REPORTFINDER home page and Search Engine

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Back to Top

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Building upon the success of its 1999 report on Out-Of-Town Shopping, Key Note has produced a second Market Assessment report on retail development, covering both the town-centre and out-of-town sectors, with a view to investigating the factors which will shape the future of the retail market. Out-of-town centres are generally recognised as having been introduced to the UK market in the mid-1970s, although some sources believe this to be earlier, depending upon definition of shopping centre size and location. The out-of-town market in this report is taken to include non-town-centre shopping centres, retail parks and factory outlets, although some of the latter may be located close to a town centre.

Since the introduction of Planning Policy Guideline PPG6, issued in 1996, there has been a shift in policy towards town-centre developments. This has been led by both social and environmental concerns about sustaining the vitality of town centres and ideally promoting the usage of forms of transport other than the car. Consequently, town centres accounted for all scheduled shopping centre openings towards the end of 2000, and this looks set to continue into the foreseeable future.

The retail market itself is estimated to have sales of over £200bn, with food sales representing the largest proportion of this. The market has seen dynamic change amongst individual retailers, with Wal-Mart, for example, purchasing ASDA in July 1999, and there is constant news of restructuring amongst clothes chains, from Marks and Spencer to C&A (Head Office) and Arcadia. Faced with e-commerce, restrictions on space and a need to attract the consumer to particular locations, there has been an increase in the number of mixed-use schemes, with retail and leisure developments particularly increasing. Shopping centres actively market themselves to attract consumers, with some £18.5m being spent by key UK shopping centres for the year ending September 2000 alone, according to ACNielsen MMS.

There are six large shopping centres in the UK and all are out-of-town - Bluewater (Kent), Meadowhall (Sheffield), Lakeside (Thurrock), Metro Centre (Gateshead), Trafford Centre (Manchester) and Merryhill (Birmingham). Nevertheless, recent town-centre openings, such as the Buchanan Galleries in Glasgow, are testimony to the increasing draw of town centres.

On an international scale, the US is generally recognised as the birthplace of shopping centres and currently has over 44,000 in existence. Nevertheless, the European market appears attractive to foreign investors, with property developers such as Westfield Holdings Ltd and Lend Lease Corporation, amongst many others, gaining a number of stakes in the market.

As the ultimate driving force behind retail development, the consumer is the starting point for anticipating retail trends. The profile of the UK population is changing significantly, and by 2011, a fifth will be aged over 65. There will also be growth amongst the 45+ category with traditionally higher disposable incomes. Meanwhile, the number of children under 10 will fall significantly, whilst the more technically proficient group of teenagers and young people in their early 20s will rise. Against this background, retailers must adapt their product offer accordingly to target particular market segments.

In terms of consumer shopping habits, 72 percent of households owned a car in 1998/1999, according to National Statistics, with the majority of consumers still using a car to shop. Nevertheless, the Government is attempting to reduce car usage in the future with, for example, levies proposed on parking and an improvement in the availability of public transport. At the same time, there is strong growth forecast in the usage of the Internet for shopping, as evidenced by retailers such as Tesco, which already has an e-commerce site, and lately, ASDA and J Sainsbury, which are also launching an e-commerce option.

Included in this report are two exclusive surveys carried out for Key Note. The first, undertaken by NOP, investigates consumer shopping habits, with a view to highlighting differences between usage of town or out-of-town shopping centres and probing preferred changes to town centres. The second survey was conducted by Key Note, with feedback having been obtained from shopping centre managers to identify key issues, as they see them, affecting their type of outlet. Key conclusions are that convenience is cited as the key reason for choosing a particular centre, with the obvious appeal of the town centre brought to the fore. Centre managers, along with consumers, would also like to see improvements in tenant mix to provide a wider selection.

Key Note forecasts that there will be growth in town-centre shopping centres over the period 2000 to 2005, with retail sales rising by an average of 5 percent per annum, given the number of centres which are planned to open and taking into account competition between individual centres and other external factors such as e-commerce.

Growth in out-of-town centres will be more limited, given the restrictions on development. However, sales are still anticipated to grow by an average of just over 3 percent per annum over the forecast period. It must also be acknowledged that, although standard shops are not covered within the scope of this report, the increasing investment in town-centre shopping centres is likely to benefit the development of the whole town centre, with some towns likely to prove more appealing to investors than others, given their respective consumer make-up.

Text © 2001 MAPS

Back to Top

Back To REPORTFINDER HOME PAGE

Ariadne - working together with our customers to enhance productivity and increase knowledge

© 2001 www.the-list.co.uk Ariadne

Last updated by Duncan Nottage 25th January 2001