Bank on success

Published: 04 December, 2008

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.

Tom Foster of Eric Young & Co, joint letting agent with DTZ, explains: "Clydebank has been unlucky in terms of national retailers going into administration, but interest from other retailers is fairly strong." For example, Home Bargains is taking 9,000 sq ft on the back of Baguette Express, which opened recently. "That brings some life up the end of the mall where Primark is," says Foster. "There are two units left in Carinthia Way but we're talking to two national retailers and hopefully those deals will be done at the start of next year. There is activity; in terms of the location Clyde is almost part of Glasgow and lots of people continue to shop in Clydebank. The retailers that give you bargains are always a footfall driver and that continues to be the case."

Footfall is currently at 150,000 a week with dwell time at around two hours. Anna Bluman, marketing manager at the centre, says: "The first quarter of the year we were doing really well on footfall and we were up on last year by quite a bit. The summer was a bit of a dip when we were slightly down on last year, but we're still doing well compared with the national average and in the first week or two of October we've seen an increase again.

"We've focused our Christmas campaigns on getting more for your money in the centre, whether through the events where people get more value from the experience in the centre or through the offers in the shops."

Last month the centre held a series of fashion shows and a model competition to win a year's modelling contract with a top Scottish agency. Most of the centre's fashion stores, such as Peacocks, Evans, Dorothy Perkins and Burtons, took part, with many reporting good sales. Other events this month include the Christmas light switch-on and the centre's 30th birthday celebrations, and retailer buy-in for these events is high.

"Our core catchment is Clydebank and the surrounding areas but we do have people from different areas of Glasgow. Since the Erskine Bridge toll went we have a lot of people coming from the south side, such as from Greenock and Paisley and also people coming down from Oban," says Bluman. "This is the first big shopping centre they hit when travelling down."

There have been many changes made to the centre since it opened in 1978, and in 2003 the owner CIS invested £22m on a refurbishment that included transforming the previously open centre into an enclosed mall and adding on an extension to the centre, as well as the creation of a new management suite that includes conference rooms that the management team let to local communities and charities as well as their tenants, free of charge. Most recently CIS has invested in a refurbishment of the canal side next to the centre, transforming the area into a pleasant place to sit and relax.

An added bonus for shoppers is they can park for free for the first four hours in the three surface car parks, allowing plenty of time if they are visiting the cinema, while the multi-storey car park is free all day to shoppers - unusual for a town centre scheme.

The environment has also leapt up the agenda at Clyde shopping centre, which has this year been given a Green Apple Award for the work it has done with the Carbon Trust to cut electricity and gas consumption by 42 per cent in the last two years. That has included encouraging tenants to switch off their lights, cutting back on cleaning out of hours and installing energy efficient light bulbs. In addition, the centre has recently installed a new compactor for cardboard recycling and all the retailers are now on board with it. "Retailers were doing their own thing before," says Bluman. "We had lots of vehicle collections on different days so it's not just that we're doing recycling, we're cutting down on pollution as well."

There are also plans to add plastics and hangers to the recycling plant in the near future.

With regeneration works being continuously carried out by Clydebank Rebuilt, which has rebuilt the college and continues to build new homes and improve the general environment of the town, Clyde shopping centre can surely only continue to go from strength to strength.

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=== vital statistics ===

Clyde

Owners: CIS

Managing agent: NB Real Estate

Letting agents: DTZ and Eric Young & Co

GLA: 782,000 sq ft

Catchment: 704,000 within a 20-minute drive

Number of units: 80 approx

Dwell time: two hours approx

Footfall: 150,000 a week

Anchor tenants: Asda, Empire cinema, Dunnes Stores, Bhs, HMV, Primark, JJB Sports and Woolworths