At first sight this might seem curious. The British Land-owned Eastgate centre is in many ways a product of its era. Originally owned by Norwich Union, it was completed in 1985 and its 118 units are housed in a fairly unglamorous concrete shell with a terrazzo-floored interior. General manager Hans Wustefeld is the first to admit that the modernization that is currently planned for 2006 may be somewhat overdue: “Some of the flooring outside Debenhams (one of the two anchors in the centre) has been in place since we opened. We are looking at what to do about this with our architects.”

On which reckoning the environmental gong handed over at an evening hosted by Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt, MP, might still seem a little odd. But this would be to underestimate how the centre functions as a central part of life in Basildon and the manner in which Wustefeld and team have succeeded in keeping it relevant to needs of the local population.

Wustefeld comments: “From the time that British Land purchased Eastgate (in 1994) there was a strong concentration on putting the centre at the heart of the town.” Practically this has meant that Eastgate was one of the first shopping centres in the UK to become an accredited “Investor in People” and garner a host of BSI accreditations for its health and safety provision. This is something that Wustefeld says is only matched by a “maximum” of 12 other centres in the whole of the country.

Close attention has also been paid to forging links with a large number of colleges, hospices and charities on the boards of which members of the Eastgate management team sit. Wustefeld says: “We encourage our staff to get involved in the community and we also provide financial support.” As well as being a philanthropist, albeit a highly commercial one, Wustefeld also uses the relationships that are in place to ensure that the Eastgate centre appears in the editorial pages of the local paper on a very regular basis. The recognition of the value of the press, particularly that which is specific to Basildon, is a feature of the Eastgate centre’s management stye.

On the environmental front, the white, well-equipped and expensive-looking bicycle that is propped against a wall of the centre’s management meeting room, tells a story. It stands as evidence that while Basildon may appear to be one of Essex’s less obviously prepossessing locations, care for the well-being of its citizens is a priority.

The bike is in fact one of a number that have been purchased by Wustefeld which will eventually form a fleet that can be borrowed, used and returned for free. A similar scheme has already been trialled in the cities of Toulouse and Vienna where, in spite of initial scepticism, it has proved to be highly successful.

Cars, of course, still form the primary means of access to Basildon’s central areas, but Wustefeld would like to see this changing. This may have a deal to do with his Dutch background – he is, as are so many of his countrymen, a keen cyclist.

Success with local marketing and community input has helped to keep Eastgate on the shopping map in the face of a potentially fickle customer base and some very considerable challenges. The first of these was probably the opening of Lakeside in the late 1980s, which threatened to pull the town’s shoppers westwards along the A13. This did indeed take place, but equilibrium was gradually restored as shoppers visited the regional centre and then drifted back to Eastgate for their everyday high street requirements.

Lakeside itself is located pretty much in the middle of nowhere in particular and other than visiting it to shop, it is hard to see that there would be any other occasion on which a diversion from the M25 or A13 would be merited. It was built as a destination shopping centre and has remained as such since opening. Basildon fulfils a different role. A major potential problem, therefore, seemed to have been averted.

And that was it until 2000. The opening of Bluewater, on the other side of the Thames, had been on the cards for a number of years and even the Lakeside leviathan was forced to look to its laurels as the UK’s most lavish centre to date welcomed shoppers for the first time. The move prompted a major upgrading of Lakeside. Both events looked even more likely than the original Lakeside opening to grab a slice of the Eastgate action.

Wustefeld is at pains to emphasise the “loyalty” of Basildon shoppers, but the real truth must be that he is effectively giving shoppers what they require as there is plenty of choice within a 30-minute drive.

Perhaps surprisingly, this degree of loyalty is borne out by Wustefeld’s statement that the average A/B shopper visits Eastgate 64 times a year – more than once a week, every week. Clearly this is a much higher frequency than would be expected at Bluewater or Lakeside, which are destinations that attract shoppers less frequently, but with substantially longer dwell times.

Referring to the Bluewater opening, Wustefeld says: “We expected it to make an impact on our customers, but that never materialised.” He continues: “In fact our footfall continues to grow and we know that we have taken some shoppers away from the regional centres. We’ve also been strengthening our appeal for the challenges Brentwood and its area present for us to the north of here.”

There have also been other more recent problems to contend with, not least of which has been the departure of Sainsbury’s, which operated a Savacentre at one end of the scheme, and Allders at the opposite end, when it went into administration last January. To lose one anchor store might be considered a misfortune; to have two disappear might look a little careless.

Wustefeld, however, is sanguine: “This came at the right time really. It was at the point (2004) when Sainsbury’s was not performing. It was therefore very welcome to get Asda which has been doing well ever since.” The arrival of a large outpost of the Leeds-based retailer might help, in part, to explain why so many repeat visits are made by shoppers on an annual basis. The shopper frequency figure remains impressive however, Asda’s undoubted attractions notwithstanding.

The Allders unit was taken, almost immediately, by Debenhams and is now the department store operator’s fourth largest UK store. The refit took place quickly. The Sainsbury store was out of action for rather longer as a travelator and mezzanine, for the George department, were installed.

All of which means that as a centre, Eastgate has recently been trading comfortably ahead of similar schemes in the UK and indeed, its numbers have been ahead of its 2004 performance for much of this year. Wustefeld says: “We compare every thing we do with national indexes and trade-wise we over-perform.” As if to reinforce this claim, there is a small pile of Footfall trading analyses on his desk, parts of which have been strategically left open for the curious to look at and be duly impressed by.

Stephen Spendlove, director at Colliers CRE, the letting agent for Eastgate, says that rents in the centre average £135 - £140 per sq ft zone A and that there continues to be positive demand for space. In common with the robust local marketing, Spendlove takes a hands-on approach to keeping the tenant mix fresh: “We find that when we can persuade people to visit, they're surprised.”

With this in mind, Spendlove recently managed to convince a number of retailers, not currently present at Eastgate, that a visit to the centre would be worthwhile. The result is that both Faith Shoes and Jane Norman are currently in the middle of the process of fitting out new units having agreed terms and signed on the Eastgate dotted line.

According to Wustefeld, around 60 per cent of Basildon’s retail offer is under cover. This is an unusually high figure for any UK high street and is a measure of the highly-planned nature of the town’s development. As one of the original New Towns that were developed from the middle of the last century onwards, Basildon remains a concrete testimony to the single-minded nature of those who were charged with its creation. For which reason, it would never be readily described as pretty, but there again, that was certainly not its purpose.

In many ways then, this Essex New Town seems to epitomise much that you imagine when the words Thames and Gateway are put together. That said, in spite of initial appearances, the Eastgate centre manages to overcome this mild disadvantage and if the “refreshment” programme, as Spendlove tags it, goes ahead in 2006, it looks set to continue bucking expectations.

Externally, Eastgate looks very much of a piece with its surroundings. It does look its age and its architecture is typical of the period in which it was built, but it is impressive nonetheless. Small wonder then, that shoppers seem to keep coming back for more. Wustefeld and his team appear to be doing a good number of things right.

Fact file

Eastgate shopping centre, Basildon

Owner: British Land

Annual footfall: 13.7m

Letting agent: Colliers CRE

GLA: 875,000 sq ft

Catchment: 1,295,419 people within a 30 minute drive

Number of tenants: 108

Food Court: 400+ seats

Anchor Stores: Asda, Debenhams, Primark, TK Maxx, Next and New Look

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