But while it has built a strong portfolio of over 40 schemes, either owned or are actively being developed by the company, Modus also has a number of other strings to its bow, having established marketing and mall income specialists Shoppertainment and retailer Passion for Perfume.

Marketing director of Modus and managing director of Shoppertainment Clare Andrew certainly has her hands full, both marketing the company's current and forthcoming schemes while also managing the growing Shoppertainment team.

"I've been with Modus now for 10 years so I've done all my growing up at Modus," says Andrew. "I came fresh from being trained and qualified. I had just started a small business as a marketing consultant, which is where I met Brendan Flood.

"Modus bought Mayview shopping centre, for which I did the marketing, and I got talking to Brendan and decided to join the company. We were a very small team at the time with just five of us, and then the company just grew and grew."

Andrew started out organising mall events in Modus' shopping centres, including mall income-generating events, and shortly after joining the team she established Shoppertainment due to demand from other owners, who wanted to know who did their mall events.

"I started it off completely from scratch," says Andrew. "They didn't do anything like that before so it was a completely new business idea.

"It's all about bringing your malls to life and making them attractive. If you can generate income as well, then better still. In the early days we used to have car promotions and credit card companies, and the perfume counters in Debenhams used to come out into the malls. Apart from that it was the odd children's ride."

These days she is more likely to get involved with product launches and marketing events backed by sponsorship. "The public is a lot more switched on, so a promotion has to be done in a more sophisticated way to get their attention," says Andrew. "Ten years ago you could probably have the same promotion over and over but now we have to be much smarter with our marketing."

Andrew likes to get involved in the planning of a scheme from the outset so she can conceive the commercial activities - now a huge part of the overall design of a centre.

"It's important to have central stage areas and make sure we're not restricted by fire and safety, so the more planning you do in the beginning the better the layout for concessions and so on.

"We work with the architects and because we're a close-knit team anyway, we know each other's strengths."

She says it was a combination of people approaching Modus because they liked what they had done in their smaller centres and Andrew talking to owners about her ideas that led to the establishment of Shoppertainment.

"I knew that I had some great ideas and some fantastic concepts that would work, but not in the small centres we had, so we wanted to explore bigger schemes," she says. "We're different to Space & People and Promotion Space so we don't compete with them. Our concept is totally unique because it involves lifestyle events, entertainment and income generation, and from an owners point of view we're not an agency."

From starting out as the only marketing person at Modus, Andrew now works with a team of 25 at Shoppertainment.

"It's phenomenal how fast we've grown," she says. "But I think it's down to everyone's personality, pure dedication and hard work."

And Andrew herself certainly works hard, so as a mum to a four-year-old son she is very thankful for the support she receives from her family that allows her not to have to worry about what's going on at home.

"I do all the corporate marketing on the schemes and make sure the finishes look nice and the branding works together as a theme, because you can have different ideas and concepts but it's about working together - otherwise it's a total mismatch," she says.

"For each scheme we have to do something different and sometimes shocking to get people's attention. I have a look at the people that are close around and I think about how I can get their attention. What will make them sit up and think 'that's interesting'? You have your parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters and your boss and colleagues, and everyone is different. We have to try and get a little piece of everything and make sure we have an element of their personalities in there. We would all be millionaires if we knew the exact ingredient but you throw a few things in the box. It's like making a good cake - you need lots of different elements to make the cake taste good.

"So we get shoppers involved in naming the scheme or in helping with the brand, and get the children involved in things like time capsules. We try and get involved with the community as much as possible.

"Therefore, it's important that rather than putting the Modus brand or stamp on a scheme, each scheme should be tailor-made to suit the people who will be shopping at that particular centre. You can probably recognise it's a Modus scheme because it will be different and unique in an intriguing way."

Grand Arcade in Wigan launched this year and Andrew came on board five years ago when the lettings process began.

"The guys for a few years made sure it all worked together and then I came in about five years ago," says Andrew, who adds that they made the scheme unique with the branded Casino Café food court area, whispering windows that talk to shoppers about in-centre promotions, lighting schemes and interactive fishes on the floor.

"More importantly it's about putting something on for the family because that's what brings a centre to life," she adds. "Any new scheme should be treated as if it were alive; you have to make sure you nurture it and look after it. You have to breathe life into your scheme - it's not just bricks and mortar."

Meanwhile Andrew says the lettings process is going 'OK' at the moment within the portfolio.

"The market isn't particularly buoyant but it's not affecting us at the moment," she says. "We have our wits about us and we make sure we're careful. We won't change the way we market things.

"We have good partnerships with all the big retailers like Debenhams, Next and Bhs. They're our customers and they have to be happy. That's why my job has such a broad profile, looking after shoppers and retailers and making sure the malls look nice and that the finishes are right, the general entertainment value is there and the corporate entertainment value is there.That's what keeps me going because we have so much on the go and I enjoy it."

Looking to the future, Andrew reckons we will see more lifestyle-focused shopping centres. "I think it's definitely moving that way now," she says. "There will be lots of lifestyle events and activities, for example bowling, restaurants, swimming pools, ice rinks, golf driving ranges, and so on, so it will be much more than a shopping experience.

"We don't have to go out and find new land, it's about regenerating a town centre, like we're doing in Newport.

"Shoppers are much more sophisticated nowadays and they know what they want because there's so much choice in the market; so we have to give them what they want or they'll go elsewhere.

"Wigan is a shopper destination in itself, so we work with all stakeholders in the town to make sure the whole offer works."

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