Trevor Wood Associates has announced that there has been a significant shift in the number of shopping centre stores amongst some leading retailers across the UK.
The independent researcher’s latest findings released this week reveal that Blue Inc, EE, Vodafone, Next and Claire’s have shed a large number of stores within shopping centres during 2016, whilst Smiggle, Poundland, Pandora, The Works and Warren James have significantly expanded their property portfolios.
Smiggle is the UK’s fastest expanding shopping centre retailer, having acquired 39 stores in 2016, taking its total number of UK stores to 73. Poundland has acquired 33 stores, Pandora 29, The Works 24 and Warren James 22.
Trevor Wood of Trevor Wood Associates comments, “These are sizeable expansions, particularly as none of these retailers have ever been in our top 10. Australian stationery brand Smiggle only opened its first UK store in 2014, but In March 2016 the company announced global sales growth of 46.5% and confirmed its UK roll out was well ahead of schedule. Stores were opened in centres such as Eastgate Shopping Centre in Basildon in October 2016 and Liverpool One in December, while new stores, including Westgate Shopping Centre in Oxford, are scheduled to open later this year.”
“Poundland now has 224 stores in the UK and Pandora has 158. As well as opening new stores such as Kingsgate Shopping Centre in Dunfermline in April 2016, Poundland now trade from a number of 99p Stores, such as Charter Walk Shopping Centre in Burnley and Stratford Centre in London. “Stores opened by Pandora include the Galleries Shopping Centre in Washington in November 2016 and The Priory Centre in Worksop in December, with other openings in the pipeline. In addition to the top five mentioned, five other retailers added more than 10 units and a further 13 retailers opened at least 5 units in 2016.
“In contrast Blue Inc closed 44 stores in the UK, closely followed by EE, the UK’s leading shopping centre retailer, which closed 24 stores last year. Vodafone closed 15 stores, Next 10 and Claire’s 9 stores. Along with the closure of all Bhs stores, these results point towards a significant shift in the retailer landscape within UK shopping centres.”
Trevor Wood Associates published its latest report ‘Going Shopping 2017 – The Definitive Guide to Shopping Centres’ in November 2016 and is a leading, independent provider of information on all retail and leisure schemes in the UK.