BHF on the move
Published: 13 April, 2011
With shop vacancies rising inexorably, could charity shops help plug the gap?
Charity shops are shrugging off their old down-market image and approaching retail with a new professionalism. The British Heart Foundation is a case in point, having carved a niche for itself with large-format stores specialising in electricals and furniture.
The BHF is widely regarded as having the most successful and professionally run portfolio of shops in the charity sector. It aims to provide a quality retail environment with shopfit to an excellent standard and is successful in generating significant pedestrian footfall.
BHF currently trades from over 600 shops, 113 of which are furniture and electrical stores. And another 30 are currently in the pipeline. In July 2010, when the BHF opened its 100th furniture & electrical store in Acocks Green, Birmingham, it calculated that the format had already made £100m for the charity, with all profits going into life saving preventative care and treatment of heart disease – the nation’s biggest killer.
And the format has been so successful that now that BHF is looking for another 200 sites.
BHF takes institutional leases usually for a term of 10 years. But for furniture & electrical stores short term opportunities with a minimum term of 3 years will also be considered.
The minimum requirement is for 5,000 sq ft, of which 3,500 sq ft should be ground floor sales space. Visibility is important so the stores need a large store frontage of at least 10 metres. And the stores need a loading area with customer parking on-site or nearby.
And reflecting the growing professionalism of charity retailing, Colliers’ corporate solutions team has just won a competitive tender to help Scope to enhance the day-to-day property management of its store portfolio and further build on its retail success.
Andrew Adair, director of retail at Scope explains: “We are keen to develop our long-term strategy in order to maximise the opportunities that exist in the retail property market.”
