Landlords, local authorities and town centre partnerships must bring imagination and focus to bear on town centres in the face of retail carnage on the High Street, according to retail experts at national commercial property firm Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH).
They warn that the collapse of many major retail chains and continuing poor trading mean that planners need to focus on alternative uses and regeneration to ensure that, as shopping pitches contract, the lifeblood doesn’t flow out of city and town centres.
Julian Welch, LSH’s Head of Retail, said that increases in internet trading were masking continuing falls in High Street footfall.
He said, “Next has posted figures showing a 3.1 per cent rise in like for like sales in Q4 last year, but it is very telling that their High Street stores showed a 2.7 per cent sales drop while their online sales saw a huge 16 per cent increase. Waitrose has announced a rise of 9.5 per cent in December, but put much of their success down to a strong on-line offer. And Amazon had a very successful trading period.
“Meanwhile there is carnage on the High Street, with Hawkins Bazaar, Blacks, La Senza, Barratts and D2 all running out of road, while Past Times, Clinton Cards, HMV and Thomas Cook are finding life very difficult, on top of all the big names we lost in 2011. The common thread here is that those without a strong on-line presence are feeling the pinch. More than a pinch, in fact. They are facing a significant and fundamental assault on their very existence.”
He added, “Gone are the days of the national chains requiring a presence on every High Street, in every shopping centre, and with multiple units in a single town or city. E-retail is inexorable in its progress. There is no longer a need for huge piles of bricks and mortar and those operators that have expanded into large numbers of locations are now feeling over-stretched and exposed.”
He saidd, “Retailers with a strong on-line presence will continue to prosper. Those without, or without a unique offering, will not. They will continue to suffer and seek solace in the pre-pack solution to their troubles.
“The High Street will need to continue to evolve to keep up with changing circumstances. It is clear that there will be increasing vacancies and a lack of new operators to fill them. This situation calls for all of the imagination and vision that planners and landlords can muster if town centres are to be saved from near desolation.”
