According to the latest King Sturge Retail Tenant Survey, coffee shops are more important to a shopping centre than pubs.
60% of shopping centre and retail park tenants believe that coffee shops add the most vitality, whereas only 31% of tenants consider public houses and wine bars add the most vitality.
Susanne Boodram, retail research at King Sturge said, 'We were surprised to find coffee shops still high on the list of retail tenantsÂ' preferences. Especially considering the consolidation which is going on in this sector at the moment.'
Among the other results, the most prominent findings were:
* Sunday trading favours retail parks at the expense of shopping centres which is contrary to the GovernmentÂ's aim of maintaining and enhancing town centres through PPG6 and PPG13. 100% of retail park tenants said that profits have improved as a direct result of Sunday trading. However 43% of shopping centre tenants stated that Sunday trading did not improve profits.
* Tenants believe that support from local authorities is inadequate. 58% of shopping centre tenants and 40% of retail park tenants stated that local authorities could do more to support retailers.
Mike Taylor, Head of Out of Town Retail for King Sturge said, 'Landlords have recognised the need to improve the image of retail parks. We already have evidence that this situation is improving with the new concept of branded parks, which offer pro-active management for retail tenants as well as creating a customer friendly environment'.
The King Sturge Annual Retail Tenant Survey is available free of charge and can also be accessed from our website on our Research page.
As an example of this concept, The Junction is a joint venture between Morley and Capital and Regional, which intends to create 25 branded destination retail parks in the UK. They have introduced shopping centre skills to support retailers, utilising branding to create income streams to fund the promotion of parks without putting an extra burden on the tenants, improving turnovers and rentals in the longer term.
(source: King Sturge)
