In its latest co-branding exercise it has found a way of generating revenue while adding to the overall customer experience. By converting just 18 out of its 13,000 car parking spaces it has created a specialist facility for Autoglass, the UK's leading windscreen-repair company.

Autoglass has erected an eye-catching structure in a prominent location right on one of the centre's main roundabouts, and is offering Bluewater customers free repairs of chipped windscreens, provided they carry fully comprehensive insurance.

Peter Lumsdaine, marketing director at Autoglass, explains: "Chip repairs are covered by most insurers under their fully comprehensive policies, and if the screen is beyond repair we can replace it on-site with a screen delivered from our local depot. This is the ultimate in convenience in glass repair." After three months, the service is proving popular not just with customers but with the 8,500 store and centre staff who work on-site.

Repairs typically take just 20 minutes, but the aim is to increase dwell time at the mall by encouraging shoppers to leave their cars with Autoglass when they arrive. A golf buggy is on hand to ferry shoppers right to the centre's door, and once they've finished shopping they simply phone for the buggy, which picks them up and takes them back to their car.

And it is this customer care element that is important for Bluewater's corporate partnerships manager Chris Meredith. "For us, it's an extension of the guest experience," he says. "Autoglass's hosting philosphy integrates with the whole ethos of Bluewater."

Neither party will disclose details of the financial arrangements, but clearly there's something in it for both sides. "We have a commercial arrangement where we pay for access to the site and the use of the space," is all Lumsdaine will say.

In addition to the main repair facility, the deal allows for a mobile unit to visit each of the centre's car parks in turn to maximise brand exposure for Autoglass and improve customer convenience. And although Bluewater has a strict 'no leafleting' policy, the deal allows Autoglass to identify individual cars in the car parks that have chipped windscreens and to leave a message alerting the drivers to the service.

The two sides are now getting used to each others' ways of working, and Bluewater has just entrusted Autoglass with its detailed annual footfall figures so that the company can plan ahead and adjust staffing levels for peaks and troughs in demand.

And the Bluewater experience has convinced Autoglass that it should do more. "We're looking for other sites for similar operations," says Lumsdaine, "but we need organisations like Bluewater that are prepared to work alongside us." He has a medium-term target of 30 such facilities, and they will include more shopping centres.

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