Date: Wed 11th November, 2009
Venue: Bridgewater Hall, Lower Mosley Street, Manchester, M2 3WS
Retail’s been through another tough year, but most of the big names are hanging on in there, at least outside of the really viciously-hit sectors such as furniture. As part of the British Council for Shopping Centres’ annual conference, Insider hosted a business breakfast using Manchester’s “Original, modern” branding to address how the city’s retail can cope with recession and emerge stronger.
Keynote speaker was Rowena Burns, chief operating officer at Manchester property company Bruntwood and chair of city centre management organisation Cityco. Burns talked of the launch of Manchester’s Christmas marketing push, its largest ever, which includes a specially-made TV advert to help boost customer numbers to the city centre.
The £600,000 campaign also includes the distribution of 750,000 specially-designed Christmas maps, highlighting six different retail and leisure districts in the city centre. Burns said: “It is critically important that retail is supported because consumer confidence is so shaky.”
Burns said the big message under her time in the chair would be getting the basics right – something she enforced in her time at Manchester Airport, now a multiple award-winner. Cityco is, she said, leading the Christmas lighting scheme, leading on safety in the Canal Street area, has set up a street care team and established a Cityco Business Crime Unit, all of which should help retail prosper. She added: “The challenge for retail is public realm, tackling vacancy and building consumer confidence.”
One of the biggest issues facing retail is the widely reported figure of 10 per cent vacancy. Panellist Barry Nightingale, finance director at Betfred, believes that it’s too convenient to blame intransigent institutional landlords. He said: “There are some phenomenal deals to be done. We’ve opened 40 stores this year. Don’t blame the landlords, because you should be able to finds ones willing to do deals. There are unprecedented opportunities.”
But suggesting that things are different for smaller businesses, Morgan Davies of Mexican fast food mini-chain Barburrito said: “We’ve looked at a lot of properties in the last six months but we’re not really seeing any reduction in rents.” Davies suggested that smaller businesses still need a relaxed approach from landlords prepared to do things differently:
“We can’t stand up to the likes of Subway or KFC on a covenant test, so that sort of landlord’s not for us. But in Argent in Manchester and Grosvenor in Liverpool we’ve found a good fit and those cities are better for encouraging more interesting names into their city centres.”
The decline of King Street, historically Manchester’s prime retail pitch, was examined in some detail. Davies put forward the argument that it needed tackling proactively by the city council pulling landlords together, while audience members agreed, suggesting that such an asset shouldn’t be allowed to wither on the vine.
The final panellist, Greater Manchester Chamber chief executive Angie Robinson, said: “King Street will come back – it’s a beautiful street and even with the empty units it still has a lovely feel and a great location, if retailers can be given the reasons to come back.”
