News that Fenwick would close its Leicester branch came as little surprise to a regional retail property expert. Ben Taylor from Innes England considers the growing importance of location on retailers.
Sadly it doesn’t come as much of a shock that Fenwick has decided to close its department store in Leicester – the city has changed a great deal since it opened in 1962 and the central shopping areas have migrated.
Shopping culture has also changed drastically in that time; more and more people are now buying online and when they do venture to the shops they are after something more experiential. The modern shopper wants a bustling, convenient and varied shopping experience, packed with not only the brands, but also cafes, bars and restaurants.
The ‘Highcross effect’ has been notable in Leicester as footfall is increasingly drawn towards this ‘one stop shop’ of retail and leisure, meaning the likes of Fenwick struggle to compete. Market Street is simply too far away from that central shopping district for a department store to thrive in the Leicester of today.
Modern shopping centres work incredibly hard to encourage customers – and it works. Highcross attracts on average more than 21 million visitors a year with nearly £2bn of spending power*, so it is unsurprising that retailers nearby are reaping the benefit.
Lumbers jewellers is a great example. The store was previously located near to Fenwick but it moved to a more prominent position opposite Highcross last year in recognition of that increased footfall.
That isn’t to say, however, that consumers won’t travel further to buy specialist goods or a brand they particularly like. Areas outside of shopping centres that do well are destinations within their own right, but have to work hard on a collective basis to create a unique identity. Good examples being The Lanes area in Leicester and Derby’s Cathedral Quarter, recently winning the City Location category of the Great British High Street.
However it’s not as easy for stores the size of Fenwick to simply move closer to the competition, supply of the right sized property and capital investment for new stores the size of Fenwick are extremely hard to achieve.
There is always a degree of sadness particularly with retailers such as Fenwick with such a long and successful history in retailing, very much typified by the Chairman of the group breaking the news personally to his staff.
Ben Taylor is a director that specialises in retail and roadside at commercial property agency Innes England.
*Source: http://www.lunson-mitchenall.co.uk/projects/leicester-highcross/
