Glasgow based Rearo has created a brand new baby changing facility at Capital Shopping Centre’s Braehead shopping centre in Renfrew.

 Many shopping centres are having to bite the bullet and replace ageing lifts and
 escalators. How can this be achieved with minimum disruption?

At  1.4m sq ft, with a weekly footfall of 600,000, Manchester Arndale is one of the foremost retail destinations in the UK. Being slap-bang in the middle of Manchester city centre with good transport links and a unique student market, the Arndale attracts Britain’s second highest footfall after the Bullring in Birmingham. “Over 37 million people walked through our doors in 2009 alone,” confirms centre director Glen Barkworth.
A scheme of this size and reputation poses a major challenge for the FM team. But the Arndale has gone from strength to strength with Interserve handling security, cleaning, customer services and waste management. “We’ve seen constant growth in both footfall and sales despite a rough economic climate,” says Barkworth.
Poignantly, it’s the attitude of the 200 Interserve staff that Barkworth prizes above skill. “Interserve does a great job at providing the processes so that everything runs smoothly, but I could train people up to manage customer services or cleaning facilities,” he begins. “What Interserve does is provide the right attitude.”
Tanya Buse, who leads a customer service team of 25, has worked in five other shopping centres but is most impressed by the approach at Manchester Arndale. “Our training involves learning about the Arndale’s past and how it has evolved, so it becomes more than just a workplace. All the staff work together like one big team,” she says. So if a security guard comes across litter on the floor, he’ll automatically clean up rather than considering it outside his job description.
Interrelations between the service teams on the floor are essential to the running of the centre, as is communication between Interserve staff and the Arndale’s 10,000 store staff. “We visit the retailers every week to have a look at their figures and deal with any problems they’re having,” continues Buse. “Around 80 per cent of our job is going in and speaking to retailers, as opposed to just the paying customers.”
According to Sanders, this marks a significant change in the approach to facilities management. In the past, customer service was focussed wholly on the shopper. “Now, the credit crunch has shown us that centres and retailers need to be in it together if we want to increase footfall and sales,” explains Interserve director Tony Sanders. He advocates total facilities management over single service deliveries: “A total solution creates excellent team spirit, so it’s ideal for shopping centres. Single service just isn’t the same.”
When it comes to the day-to-day running of Manchester Arndale, it’s fair to say every angle is covered. According to food court coordinator Sheila Fisher, the number of staff calls for careful planning. “Every member of staff logs into a PDA handset, which is uploaded daily with all the jobs that need doing throughout the centre. Everyone has their own set of tasks, and they swipe a bar code on the wall once each job is done.” And she adds that keeping a close eye on staff ensures every task is carried out to high standards. “If something isn’t done, a red light flashes on the system and I follow it up.”
New jobs can be logged as a when a hazard is spotted, such as spillages. “Flexibility is very important,” confirms Sanders. “We always ask ourselves, ‘Can we improve on what we’re doing?’ Of course we can, but what we focus on is how to improve. It’s a live process.”

Dundrum Town Centre in Dublin is poised to reopen on Wednesday after flash flooding closed the centre on Monday

Property and support services company Europa has secured a deal to provide facilities management services to McArthurGlen East Midlands Designer Outlet.

The Events Venue at Bluewater, opening in late 2011, has awarded a long - term service contract for the new venue to specialists Melville Exhibitions and Events.

GVA’s facilities management arm has bought Acuity Holdings and Acuity Management Solutions from British Land's Broadgate Estates

Air sterilisers are increasingly used to create a welcoming environment.

The results are now in from the third State of the Retail Nation survey, Shopping Centre’s exclusive industry-wide survey, conducted by shopping centre research specialist Business Blueprints

Ambius, specialists in enhancing buildings through landscaping, scenting and artwork, is bringing a breath of fresh air to Cornbow shopping centre in Halesowen.

There are approximately 10 million disabled people in Great Britain covered by the Disability Discrimination Act, representing around 18 per cent of the population. The estimated annual purchasing power of people with disabilities is £80 billion.

The two unsuccessful bidders for the casino at Westfield Stratford, City & Eastern and Apollo Genting, are launching Judicial Reviews against Newham Council for its decision to grant the casino licence to Aspers.

TAS Systems has designed a single system to allow busy centre managers to find core information quickly and easily.   

An 18 metre long bench, creatively designed into a curvy ‘M’ shape, now forms a new meeting and resting point for hundreds of shoppers who pass through Manchester Arndale each day.

This month Capital Shopping Centres formed a ‘Facilities Alliance’ with two suppliers to provide hard and soft services across its portfolio. How will this ground-breaking deal work?

Ivanhoe Cambridge has awarded Sutton Group FM the mechanical and engineering contract for Glasgow’s St. Enoch Centre.

Capital Shopping Centres has awarded two massive contract to supply hard and soft services across its portfolio of centres, creating a new Facilities Alliance with its suppliers

The benefits of interactive wayfinding signage over traditional static signs are vast and continually evolving as digital technology develops. Touchscreens can now provide a host of real-time information beyond simple wayfinding instructions and with new features including connectivity to mobile phones, the future possibilities are endless.

The design of escalators hasn’t changed all that much since they first came into use in the early part of the 20th century and with many incidents and injuries reported each year they can be hazardous.

The Speciality Retail Group administration, shortly after it went through the CVA process, has once again thrust CVAs into the spotlight

Value and experience are the two key themes currently dominating the UK leisure sector according to Savills.

Moving walkways are becoming increasingly important in shopping centres as multi-level development becomes the norm. But the open-air installation in the 5Rise development in Bingley presented new challanges for the manufacturer Stannah.

Stannah has installed a passenger lift at the new two-storey Jigsaw store in Liverpool One, designed to be in-keeping with the decor and to ease the flow of shoppers.

In a deal worth several thousands of pounds, SSL Scotland - specialists in the supply, installation and maintenance of stairlifts and other equipment - have undertaken work at Glasgow’s St Enoch Centre.  

Is it time for centre owners to take a fresh look at total facilities management?

Glasgow is the UK’s number two retail destination, second only to London’s West End and attracts 91 million shoppers every year, so it seemed the perfect place to host the latest Retail Destinations Forum, which was held at the newly redeveloped St Enoch shopping centre on September 14

Following the revocation of Sixty’s CVA in the High Court in July, Rob Horton and Tony Murphy of Bridge Business Recovery have been appointed liquidators to Sixty UK.   

Retailers report little improvement in the service they receive from landlords

New price comparison website beyondpropertymanagement.co.uk could help shopping centre owners to form “true partnerships”.

Jones Lang LaSalle has been appointed managing agent of The Charles Darwin, Pride Hill and Riverside shopping centres in Shrewsbury.

Land Securities is helping the British Heart Foundation (BHF) to fight heart disease by running a campaign in its shopping centres to raise money for people affected by the disease – the UK’s biggest killer.

Savills has been appointed by Redevco to replace CBRE as managing agent at Princes Square in Glasgow

A High Court ruling has quashed a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) entered into by the owners of fashion brand Miss Sixty.

Landlords and tenants attempted to bridge the divide at a round table lunch hosted by Realservice, reports Sean Kelly

I never thought I’d be raving about a hospital but after hearing great things about CircleBath I hit the M4 to see for myself. CircleBath has reinvented the patient experience to the extent that you’d think you were living it up in a plush hotel rather than enduring a stint in hospital.

Out-of-hours cleaning is no longer an option in some shopping centres, forcing cleaning contractors to change their working practices

ServiceMaster Clean is undertaking a highly specialised cleaning role at Westfield Derby

The new “M” Class range of rotowash machines brings new levels of productivity to the challenging shopping centre market. Advanced technology and superb build quality ensure that these powerful machines will go on and on cleaning and drying even the most difficult floors and carpets.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has launched a free booklet to help retailers save costs by engaging with their landlords.

St Martins Property Corporation has appointed Jones Lang LaSalle’s property and asset management team to manage its UK retail portfolio.

Jones Lang LaSalle has been appointed as receivers of the 340,000-sq ft Stretford Mall in Manchester

Shopping Centre’s annual survey of centre managers’ attitudes and expectations reveals an industry that is still under unprecendented pressure

Facilities management company Europa has bought Nationwide Building Services Group, and its subsidiaries Nationwide Maintenance, Falcon Mechanical and Nationwide LCS.

Howard Morgan, managing director of RealService - the real estate customer service specialist - questions the relevance of retail parks when cheaper items are available online.

The two hundred yard-long arcade linking Piccadilly with Burlington Gardens in Mayfair was developed in 1819 by Lord Cavendish, partly to form a barrier between his house and the rowdy pubs and clubs that then lined Old Bond Street, and partly to give Lady Cavendish somewhere to shop without having to encounter the great unwashed.

Incentive Facilities Management hosted a round table at Capital & Counties’ Covent Garden offices, attended by a cross-section of landlords, managing agents and tenants’ representatives. The panel was asked what way is the market heading – total facilities management, single service provision or in-house?

At 1.4m sq ft, with a weekly footfall of 600,000, Manchester Arndale is one of the foremost retail destinations in the UK. Being slap-bang in the middle of Manchester city centre with good transport links and a unique student market, the Arndale attracts Britain’s second highest footfall after the Bullring in Birmingham.

Fiona Bruce, BBC newscaster and Action Medical Research ambassador, accepted a cheque for £27,050 on behalf of Action Medical Research from Chris Grigg, British Land’s Chief Executive, at the company’s London offices.

Capita Symonds, part of the Capita Group, has bought the commercial property management specialist NB Real Estate for £10m. The deal is part of Capita's drive to create a multi-disciplinery practice covering the full real estate lifecycle.

Property advisor Drivers Jonas is to merge with business advisory firm Deloitte to create one of the largest real estate businesses in Europe, with around 700 partners and staff.

NewRiver Retail, the AIM-listed retail property specialist set up by ex-Halladale duo David and Allan Lockhart, has made its second acquisition since its flotation last year with the £5.5m purchase of the Deeping Centre in Market Deeping, near Peterborough.

Capital & Regional, manager of the Mall, Junction and X-Leisure funds, has reported a sustained improvement in both the investment and occupational markets. It is taking advantage of the upturn to sell properties.

HMV Group has replaced the managing director of its bookselling business Waterstone’s, describing the business’s recent performance as “unsatisfactory”.

Incentive FM Consulting, part of the Incentive FM Group, has been awarded a 12-month consultancy project by Capital Shopping Centres to review and tender the facilities management work for 11 centres totalling 12.9m sq ft.

Commercial property yields strengthened in December 2009 for the ninth successive month, although the fall was the smallest since July as signs emerged that market pricing was starting to stabilise.

Lend Lease is re-tendering the three-year facilities management contract for Touchwood in Solihull and Bluewater. The brief requires that top quality customer service and value for money are offered at both centres. Head of asset management, Mark Boor, said: “The re-tender provides us with the opportunity to ensure that both continue to act as an industry benchmark.”

Land Securities is offering retailers a new lease that sets out monthly rents and transparent terms. Clearlet, which will be rolled out across Land Securities’ retail portfolio, hopes to end feuds by abolishing premium charges on monthly rent payments.

Speaking at the BCSC conference, former Cabinet Minister Michael Portillo listed some of the Conservative party’s proposals that are likely to have a major impact on retail and retail property after the next election. And he warned that the economic storm is far from over.

A year on from the Lehman Brothers collapse and consumers are spending again. But they’re buying less.

UK retail sales values fell 0.1 per cent on a like-for-like basis from August 2008, when sales had fallen, hit by very wet weather. On a total basis, sales rose 2.2 per cent against a 1.4 per cent gain in August 2008.

New research from global real estate adviser Cushman & Wakefield predicts that 2010 will see the lowest level of European shopping centre development activity for five years. And the UK is no exception.

The Experian National Retail Footfall Index in August revealed that the month showed an overall year-on-year fall in shopper visits of 4.1 per cent.

Union Square, Hammerson’s 700,000-sq ft retail-led regeneration scheme in Aberdeen city centre, will open to the public on 29 October 2009 and it is already more than 50 per cent let.

Footfall across the UK fell by 2.3 per cent in July following a similar performance over the last three months, according to the Retail Sales Monitor from the BRC and KPMG.

A sunny start to July strengthened the UK retail market with like-for-like sales rising in value by 1.8 per cent, figures from the BRC reveal.

Vacancy rates have dropped by an average of 25 per cent across the UK’s top 20 shopping centres since January, according to a recent survey by DTZ.

New research from Drivers Jonas paints a picture of a market nearing its floor. Market sentiment and investor appetite has significantly improved over the last three months. At the same time the supply of available investment opportunities remains low as liquidity pressure for the institutions and listed property companies has eased, Howard Richards reports.

The Department of Communities and Local Government says awareness of the 2007 Code for Leasing Business Premises is very low, especially among small business tenants. Research commissioned by the department from the University of Reading found that despite a strong focus on dissemination of the new code, awareness of the 2007 code is no better than that found for the earlier 2002 code.

According to insolvency specialists Begbies Traynor, 74 per cent more retailers are in financial distress now than during the second quarter of 2008. But the number of retailers with ‘critical’ problems has only grown by 17 per cent since the last quarter.

Shopping Centre has appointed its first editorial advisory panel. Founder members include Andrew Parkinson, general manager at Bluewater, and Martyn Chas, chairman of DTZ's retail division.

The BRC is calling on all political parties to pledge new support for the UK’s ailing high streets, and its campaign is already garnering high profile support.

Hamleys is one of the world's biggest top shops and one of the UK's most famous brands. The London store which has been trading for more than 250 years, has remained the only standalone store with the full offering, despite a growing number of aitport shops and a brief dalliance with concession stores. That is, until now.

Cleaning and maintenance is pivotal in ensuring shopping malls look their best. But can they be clean, lean and green? Hannah Previtt investigates how cash-strapped centres are coping with the challenge of being environmentally clean

To celebrate its relaunch, Shopping Centre commissioned an exclusive survey of centre managers from Business Blueprints to find out what’s happening out on the malls.

Retail interest is continuing to gather pace at Clyde shopping centre despite the economic difficulties that are affecting lettings at other centres in Scotland, and the 782,000-sq ft centre in Clydebank has managed to secure a number of new lettings in recent months.

Yesterday’s BCSC President’s Lunch, held at BAFTA in Piccadilly, saw Cadena’s retail guru Neil Varnham take up the presidency for 2010. After accepting the mantel from former president Jeremy Collins, he spoke of the “significant challenges in the economy and shopping centre industry”.