Moving on up
Published: 15 October, 2008
There aren't many shopping centres that are bucking the national trend at the moment by reporting an increase in footfall, but the Kingfisher Centre in Redditch is one of them. In fact, unlike most centres in the country, the mall claims the credit crunch has helped to boost its custom.
Redditch was built over 40 years ago as a New Town to support the expansion of Birmingham, and the scheme, which was one of the UK's first shopping centres, has always been a local centre for local people, despite the growth in its size to 1.1 million sq ft of gross lettable space over the past four decades. However, this has not prevented the centre from reporting an increase in footfall of 6 per cent this year.
Due to its positioning, the centre counts Merryhill in Dudley and Touchwood in Solihull as its main competition, but centre manager Amanda Phillips says the increase in petrol prices means customers are tending to stay local and shop at the Kingfisher rather than drive 30 minutes to the regional centres.
"All of our marketing is aimed at the local community and the villages, and we've been doing extremely well on footfall," says Phillips. "The credit crunch and the increase in petrol prices have helped us. We've worked really closely with the bus companies to have extended bus routes and the train station is also directly outside, with direct trains to Birmingham. Local people are important. Some shop here every day of the week."
Since its launch the scheme has undergone five 'upgrades' with the latest being the Debenhams extension, which came just after Scottish Widows Investment Partnership and Scottish Widows Unit Fund bought the centre in a joint venture in 2004, and the addition of Wilkinsons and TJ Hughes at the other end of the mall in 2002.
Phillips joined as centre manager just 18 months ago but she has implemented a number of changes since she made the move from London's Covent Garden. The new Apollo seven-screen cinema opened around the time of her arrival and it provides the first cinema for the town for many years,
On the ground Phillips has made a number of changes from a shake-up of the centre management team and introduction of a staff uniform to an improvement in customer services, including the introduction of a new customer services desk on the mall.
"People use the centre as a congregation place," she says. "All ages and all communities come and meet their friends here and they're not necessarily spending, so its about how we turn the community feel into spend for the retailers. It's important that people feel they can come here but it's also important to convert those people into shoppers.
"We recently installed a new customer service desk so we're now engaging with the community on a local level and providing services for them. We're hoping long term to sell theatre tickets for the Palace Theatre from there."
The launch of the new gift card from Store Financial is this year's biggest initiative and Phillips hopes the Mastercard-based service will encourage people to shop within the centre. Marketing company Madison Soho was in charge of the creative launch which has seen a number of giveaways and competitions to promote the new card.
"Primark don't have their own store card and they've been very keen, and even the big retailers with their own cards have been supportive," says Phillips. "While the big boys get 70 per cent of the redemption we have independent stores that are also very excited as people have the choice to shop in their stores as well. It's a win-win situation."
The centre has also recently rebranded with a new logo, which was introduced last April. "Full rebranding of all external signage will be completed before Christmas," says Phillips.
There are currently 10 voids at the 160-unit scheme. The most recent lettings include Blue Inc, Sony, Julian Graves, Sweet Delight and Gilbert Brothers, which has recently taken an over-riding lease on the 27,000-sq ft market/food hall, which features various market stalls which are sub-let to other traders.
Phillips would soon like to see a restaurant offer introduced to support the cinema and evening custom. Something tells me there's still lots to come at the Kingfisher Centre.
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=== vital statistics ===
Kingfisher Centre
Owners: Scottish Widows Investment Partnership and Scottish Widows Unit Fund
Managing agent: Jones Lang LaSalle
Letting agents: Jackson Kriss and BWD
GLA: 1.1 million sq ft
Number of units: 160
Catchment: 180,000
Footfall: 11 million annual (6 per cent up year-on-year)
Dwell time: 2-3 hours
Zone A rents: £100 per sq ft
Anchor stores: Debenhams, M&S, Primark, Wilkinsons and TJ Hughes
Number of parking spaces: 2,913 over five car parks
Number of vacant units: 10
