Shopping Centre Manager of the Year in the large centres category is Hans Wustefeld, manager of British Land's Eastgate Centre in Basildon, Essex.

Hans joined Eastgate in 1994, and last year was his most successful yet. Footfall was up 13.7 per cent to 14 million, and the average spend was up 19.5 per cent to £5,858 pa. Average dwell time was up by 10 minutes to 1.25 hours but while achieving all this Hans was able to drive down the service charge by 8.9 per cent.

The average shopper now visits the centre 72 times per year, and despite this the centre only received 12 complaints in the whole year. And in an increasingly tough retail climate only 4 out of the 123 units were vacant.

For Hans other landmark achievements last year included opening a school of learning for staff and retailers and winning lottery funding for an in-house shopmobility scheme and Onsight Shopping for the visually impaired.

Improving retailer liaison has been a key part of his strategy, and Hans now produces a quarterly newsletter which is distrubuted to all tenants - significantly he calls them 'retail partners'. In addition he has set up a retailers' portal, which carries information on footfall, trading results, and the latest news about the centre.

In addition to the traditional quarterly retailers' meetings, Hans holds monthly meetings for merchants' directors, and every tenant receives a visit at least once a month. And Eastgate has an SMS system for communicating more urgent information.

"With my retail marketing experience and the enthusiasm of my team we repositioned Eastgate as the community shopping centre for south Essex, turning a decline into a success with ever-increasing footfall," is how he sums up his achievement.

Community involvement is another important string to Wustefeld's bow, and he is patron of the Essex branches of the Royal British Legion, the Normandy Veterans and Age Concern.

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