The power of partnership
Published: 23 September, 2010
Glasgow is the UK’s number two retail destination, second only to London’s West End and attracts 91 million shoppers every year, so it seemed the perfect place to host the latest Retail Destinations Forum, which was held at the newly redeveloped St Enoch shopping centre on September 14
Seventy delegates arrived for presentations by centre manager Susan Nicol of Ivanhoe Cambridge and chief financial officer at Hamleys Alasdair Dunn, followed by a three course lunch and an industry debate.
Susan Nicol kicked off proceedings and spoke about the £150m rebranding and redevelopment of St Enoch which was unveiled in May after 18 months of work during the peak of the recession.
“It was definitely a tough and a complicated redevelopment project which touched every single area of the centre,” Nicol explained. “By that time the centre was looking every bit of its 19 years. It had suffered from lack of investment for many years and also a few poor management decisions. The retail mix was adding to the overall demise of the centre with many short term tenancies and generally it looked pretty sad.”
Nicol explained that as an “important point of contact” the centre’s car park was the first project benefiting from a £350,000 refurbishment, which highlighted how much difference the team wanted to make to the rest of the centre.
The next project was to transform the malls, which now join on to Buchanan Street – one of the busiest retail streets in the world – Argyle Street, and also act as a portal to the Clyde Waterfront. The food court – where the forum was held - has also been transformed.
According to Susan Nicol, Ivanhoe Cambridge’s strategy has paid off. “You would think it might be easier at the peak of the recession to aim for quantity rather than quality, but Ivanhoe Cambridge is in this for the long haul and we stuck with our original decision to transform every aspect of the centre - physical, tenant mix and customer base,” she said.
“We also have some reconfiguration work to do in the established part of the centre. However, our strategy continues to reward and we have several retailers joining us before Christmas which is very exciting.”
The redevelopment has enticed many new retailers to join the centre including Henleys, Folli Follie, Pulp, Swatch and G-Star as well as several independent stores which Nicol hopes will bring a point of difference to the city. And this Christmas Harvey Nichols is to open a pop-up shop at St Enoch, bringing the fashion giant to Glasgow for the first time.
Part of the project was to revamp the centre’s reputation and St Enoch rebranded at the peak of construction work, with the help of advertising, promotions, PR and “hard work”.
All these changes have paid off resulting in a footfall increase of 40 per cent and the off-peak average spend going up by 80 per cent.
Nicol went on to speak of the future. The centre and Ivanhoe Cambridge continue to work with Glasgow City Council to improve their offer and to bring about further regeneration ensuring that Glasgow is a vibrant and thriving city centre.
The team is looking forward to the “equally exciting” phase two of development but in the meantime late night trading is something that Ivanhoe Cambridge would like to embrace.
“We know shoppers habits have changed and we know our neighbouring out-of-town centres trade successfully in the evenings,” said Nicol. “We also know that several city centres such as Belfast have already made this move and we will definitely make the move to late trading in 2011.”
Nicol concluded. “The company is in this for the long haul and we need to continue to deliver in the short, medium and long term. We need to remain competitive to drive the retail agenda and to keep on top of our customers’ habits. We need to listen to our customers, understand what they want and work hard to deliver, because if we don’t someone else will.”
Next, Alasdair Dunn took to the stage and invited guests to join him in celebrating Hamleys 250th anniversary. The famous toy brand opened a 30,000-sq ft store at St Enoch in November 2009 and Dunn spoke about what sets Hamleys apart.
“Hamleys is more than just a toy shop, it’s about the experience,” he said. ”What we want is for kids to walk through the door and say “wow” and to get excited.
“We encourage a culture of play – it’s very important to us that the kids are allowed to touch, feel and play with the toys and to have fun when they’re in the store. We have a race track, we have areas where kids can sit down and play with the toys and we have lots of areas of interaction.”
The store also has an entertainment team dedicated to creating theatre for customers. Hamleys believes this is its unique proposition – the customer is not simply buying products off the shelf. “Theatre is very important for us and we create theatre in a number of ways. We like people to be able to walk into the store and see things whizzing around and hear noise,” said Dunn.
He explained how the shop fit is very important and described how the store at St Enoch showcases Hamleys’ latest developments and thinking and will be used as a model for future stores.
“Normally in retail we want to create sight lines and ways for people to see what’s there,” he said. “But the opposite can work very well. We want to create a sense of discovery and a sense of wonderment so that people have to navigate their way round the store and look round corners to find something else.”
Dunn outlined that Hamleys is looking to reach out to local customers and to invest further in its existing stores. The company is looking forward to rolling out several exciting projects in time for Christmas.
After lunch, the delegates engaged in a debate with the speakers. Alasdair Dunn was asked about the practicality of retailers breaking the mould to create a point of difference.
“A lot of retailing is predominately about the product and if the environment fits the product then that’s good,” he said. “If you create the environment to be a point of difference then you can stand apart and be very different to the crowd, creating something a bit extra.”
He gave All Saints, Abercrombie & Fitch and Apple as examples of how this can work.
“I think people have to think about what it is you’re trying to be and whether you’re overall proposition includes the experience the shopper has going into your store, whether that be from shopfit or the way your staff interact with them. You have to think about whether you can take it to a different level with the products and make it special.”
Nicol added: “I think retail stands alone on this and that’s where shopping centres can make a difference. As the customer becomes more sophisticated that’s where you get to learn to work in partnership to add to that.”
Another question, aimed at Susan Nicol, focussed on the decision to overhaul the car park. “Our car park was managed for all of the 19 years by Glasgow City Council and it was in a very poor state - it was really downtrodden and nobody wanted to go there.
“You can’t invest £150m in a building because no-one will believe you if the old car park is the first thing they see, so it’s incredibly practical. Shoppers want to shop in a safe, bright and clean place, that’s just common sense.”
The partnership between Hamleys and Ivanhoe Cambridge at St Enoch has shown that for retailers it isn’t always just about the location but about choosing the developer too.
