Take your pick
Published: 20 January, 2011
Catering in shopping centres has grown considerably in recent years with managers realising the potential impact that a diverse food offer can have on shopper dwell times
Buffet restaurants and novelty operators offering up to 120 dishes from a range of world cuisines have been particularly successful and are set to expand.
Multi-cuisine buffet restaurant Cosmo has 13 outlets including Bentley Bridge Retail Park in Wolverhampton and has recently done deals on three new units, including a 14,000 sq ft restaurant at Central Village, Liverpool.
Cosmo serves pan-Asian dishes from China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Mongolia, Singapore, Vietnam and India and the experience is bolstered by live cooking stations where diners can watch the chefs at work.
Red Hot World Buffet is a similar concept serving Italian, Thai, Indian, Chinese, Mexican and Japanese food with five restaurants including branches in Liverpool One and The Light shopping centre in Leeds.
And the figures speak for themselves. Red Hot World Buffet at Liverpool One turns over £90,000 per week – the average restaurant will do about £20,000 – and Cosmo’s 13 outlets serve over 25,000 diners every week.
“Well established buffet operators such as Cosmo, Red Hot World Buffet and Jimmy Spices have been able to grow their portfolios and enhance their brands, giving them a base to expand even further over the next few years. The current economic climate has provided opportunities for buffet operators as consumers prioritise value and recognise the benefit of a fixed price menu,” says David Bell, associate director at Savills Retail.
And deals can be attractive for landlords because these new buffet operators often opt for large units in secondary areas of a shopping centre.
“In the current economic climate, buffet restaurants have been able to get high profile sites that they wouldn’t have done 12 or 18 months ago,” explains Bell. “They tend to take up units that have been empty for a long time and they don’t have to be in prime locations within the mall because they work on word of mouth and repeat business.”
value for money
Jonathan Doughty is group managing director at Coverpoint and chairman of the Foodservice Consultants Society. “Buffet restaurants offer extraordinary value for money and they were the first to reduce their prices when the recession hit,” he says. “People see the appeal of eating all they want for a fixed price and because they’re less confrontational than other restaurants they’re good for people eating alone – it’s filled that single requirement. There’s also big demand in towns and cities with a strong student population.”
But they can have a negative impact on other tenants. “They can be good and bad,” explains Bell. “Arguably from a landlord’s point of view they could be detrimental to other restaurants. If a family come in and one person wants Italian, one wants Indian and one wants Chinese they can all go to one restaurant so the impact is sometimes negative because of the sheer number of people who can eat there.”
Doughty has a different view of why they may not be favoured by landlords. “Landlords really understand food as part of the tenant mix but they aren’t necessarily going to need a buffet. There’s huge demand to give people choice but many will chose to have their Chinese and their Thai restaurants separate.”
Bell admits that deals are not as attractive as they used to be because copy cat operators are coming into the market but he can’t see demand changing and expects established operators to grow over the next two years.
John Duffy, director of in-town retail Scotland at Colliers International can’t see much room for expansion in Scotland. “I can’t see a huge demand for buffet restaurants. Red Hot World Buffet is looking for a 15,000 to 20,000-sq ft unit in Glasgow but it hasn’t happened yet,” he says. “If it does start to grow I can only see it working in mixed use retail and leisure schemes or places like Livingstone Factory Outlet Centre or Glasgow Fort Retail Park.”
Some have suggested that buffet restaurants are one of the few sectors that has been largely unaffected by the recession but according to Doughty, they’re not head and shoulders above the rest.
“They have been phenomenally successful but middle-market food like pizza, pasta and premium burger outlets like Bryon and Handmade Burger Co have done just as well,” he concedes.
Bell agrees that the restaurant sector has been remarkably resilient in 2010 and that despite fears that consumers are tightening their belts, there is still underlying confidence in the restaurant sector and strong demand for quality sites in good locations.
“Centre management are becoming more open minded about their catering offer – it’s no longer your bog-standard foodhall with McDonald’s and Pizza Hut, now they’re looking at expanding their offer,” he says. “While it’s important to get strong covenants on the lease it’s also important to get a good and varied food offer and increase dwell time.”
50 per cent off
According to Doughty the biggest reason that foodservice has continued to trade well is because discount vouchers have made eating out more affordable and accessible. “You can eat out for effectively 50 per cent off – to consumers that appears to be incredible value for money and that’s a massive massive driver,” he says.
Another reason and a theory of Doughty’s is that people have cut down on spending so they aren’t necessarily going to splash out on a holiday or buy so many clothes but instead they’re treating themselves to a nice cup of coffee or a spot of lunch.
The picture in Scotland has changed since the opening of Union Square shopping centre in October 2009, according to Duffy. The shopping centre has 19 restaurants including Chiquito, Wagamamas, Prezzo, Handmade Burger co and YO! Sushi. Jamie’s Italian is also looking for space and unusually Spur Steak and Grill chose Union Square to open its first branch in Scotland, rather than breaking into the Scottish market via Glasgow or Edinburgh.
“The catering offer was a new format for Scotland and its success pushed for other restaurant openings in shopping centres. It gave that sub-section of the market a confidence boost,” says Duffy.
“Landlords are looking at their tenant mix and trying to increase dwell time. If people are looking to have a sit-down meal rather than just a coffee and your catering offer is strong, they’ll go to your centre rather than staying on the high street. It’s another string in the bow and it can be really powerful. As with anything it’s evolving and on-going.”
Doughty has seen a more pro-active approach to catering. Where before landlords would have simply got restaurants in and left them, now they’re much more interested in customer service and standards. And he reports turnovers significantly above inflation where landlords have monitored and worked with operators.
Bell thinks that Westfield is the most pragmatic and forward thinking in bringing in new catering brands across its portfolio. “They tend to lead where others follow,” he says. “They are the market leader in being ambitious in what they look for and I think other landlords could learn from them.”
