Miller plans to carry on development in its own right in the UK, but for the time being its primary focus will be its successful business in mainland Europe, where it is active from the Atlantic to the Black Sea and from the Mediterranean to the Baltic.

For example this spring it will open a 750,000-sq ft retail and leisure scheme in Varna, a bustling port and resort town on the Black Sea in Bulgaria. Mall Varna is Miller's biggest-ever project outside the UK, and it is being developed in partnership with InterService Uzunovi, one of Bulgaria's top retailers.

Over 85 per cent of the floorspace is committed, including a number of stores that will be occupied by the joint venture partner. Anchored by a Piccadilly food store, the scheme features two floors of leisure including a multiplex and bowling alley above three floors of retail. Two levels of underground parking complete the ambitious design by Chapman Taylor.

Varna has half a dozen malls in the pipeline, despite commanding a population of only 350,000. The biggest two rivals are the German developer ECE and AIM-listed Orchid Developments, which have sites close to Mall Varna, but Miller's development manager Mark Hewitt is confident that he has stolen a march on the opposition.

"With our development background we prefer to forward-purchase schemes, so we can have some influence over design, the management set-up and the tenant mix," he says, "and we can generate more margin by taking a bit more of the risk."

Miller entered the Spanish and Portuguese markets in the late 1990s, and the latest project there is a retail and leisure scheme in Granada. More recently it has built outlet malls in Hungary and Denmark that operate under the premier Outlets brand.

But in general it prefers to operate in emerging markets. "We felt we'd missed the boat in the Czech Republic and Poland, so by a process of elimination we came to the new accession states," explains Hewitt. "And we're prepared to be broad-minded about where we operate. For instance we've looked at Ukraine although the former Yugoslavian states are probably more likely at the moment."

When entering unfamiliar markets, Hewitt says it's essential to work with a strong local partner. "We put as much emphasis on who the partner is as we do on the scheme," he says. For instance in Spain and Portugal, Miller works with Sonae Sierra. In Denmark its partner was TK, in Hungary the Austrian bank Raifeissen and in Malta Midi. "Now we're talking to a retailer about a joint venture in Romania," Hewitt adds.

"It's fascinating the way each partnership works differently," he notes. "The key is to understand each joint venture partner's attitude to the exit route, development risk and gearing."

With shopping centres on site in Granada, Valetta and Varna the Miller team is clocking up plenty of Air Miles, and division of labour is essential. While Hewitt is responsible for finding new schemes for the development pipeline, Neil Johnson is responsible for delivering the projects. "We're already in nine markets with a big pipeline of projects," Hewitt concludes. "But we're looking to double our business across Europe."

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