Ikano Centres Continues to Expand in Malaysia and Thailand

Market Info

Ikano Centres Continues to Expand in Malaysia and Thailand

Ikano’s shopping centres are spearheading futureproofing strategies driven by an omnichannel approach and strategic commercial developments

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kano Centres, part of Ikano Retail, continues to accelerate its omnichannel approach to retail amid a year marred by Covid-19 closures for its shopping centre business. As shoppers begin to return to physical visits, a key priority remains to enhance its IKEAanchored destinations to adapt to evolving consumer expectations.

With five meeting places under its portfolio – IPC, MyTOWN, Toppen, and Batu Kawan in Malaysia, as well as Megabangna in Thailand, Ikano Centres have maintained a healthy lease rate of 92% at its shopping centres throughout the past 18 months. During this time, the group introduced enhancements to address safety, improve customer experience, pilot digital partnerships, and create innovative shopping platforms for customers to connect, engage, and learn.

“We are optimistic about our

McDonalds at Ikano Centres Batu Kawan.

recovery as we see more visitors returning to our centres,” said Adrian Mirea, Ikano Centres’ Shopping Centre and Mixed-Used Director.

“To strengthen the shopping experience across our centres, we continue to sustainably invest in both physical developments to our assets and also digital platforms to elevate the experience that shoppers

Development of Shopping Centre Multi-Storey Carpark with the lifestyle RoofTopp. have at our centres, all this while ensuring that our centres continue to be safe meeting places for our customers.”

Ikano Centres introduced digital innovations aimed to support its tenants throughout closures while giving its visitors multiple ways to engage with their favourite centres. Initiatives include personal shopper services through GoGet, livestreams supported by social commerce, campaigns powered by GrabFood and Foodpanda, and optimising its shopping centre apps to facilitate convenience to shoppers through the order and collect services.

As community-centric shopping destinations, each meeting place is growing through sustainable means, with each development plan designed to cater to the needs of its surrounding community:

IPC Shopping Centre: Damansara’s favourite neighbourhood shopping centre strengthens its familyfriendly offers

At the heart of Mutiara Damansara,

IPC is finalising upgrades to its facilities to increase convenience, accessibility, and family-friendly services to its visitors. With a new escalator to improve traffic flow throughout the centre, it is also improving its family amenities including its family rooms and playgrounds.

MyTOWN Shopping Centre: Introducing a new socialising and lifestyle hub in the heart of Kuala Lumpur

Targeted to launch in December 2021, MyTOWN is excited to introduce MyGround, a vibrant new socialising hub for its city-centre based visitors to connect and co-create shared experiences. More than 145,000 sq ft of its former department store location is being redeveloped into unique retail spaces, with selected units created with a flexible model for F&B tenants featuring built-in fit-outs to offer low start-up costs and easier entry into the shopping centre market.

Toppen Shopping Centre: Championing social enterprise with Soulmates, a flexible spacebooking platform to support small businesses and entrepreneurs

To help small Johorean businesses recover from the impact of COVID-19, Toppen introduced Soulmates, a platform that provides fully prepared, flexible spaces that can be booked by the hour or day. Designed to be a one-stop solution, Soulmates is ideal for beauty and wellness, fitness, and other skills-based service providers to share their services with customers in a comfortable and professional environment.

Ikano Centres Batu Kawan: Introducing the next phase of its meeting place in North Malaysia with the opening of an F&B drive-thru concept

In line with expanding new retail experiences to the growing township of Aspen Vision City, Ikano Centres recently launched phase two of its shopping centre with the opening of a new McDonald’s drive thru. In the coming months, KFC, Tealive, and

Decathlon at MyTOWN Shopping Centre. Coffee Bean will be new additions to create many convenient food options across 200,744 sq ft gross leasable area.

Megabangna Shopping Centre: Welcoming new partners Central Pattana (CPN) Plc.

Hailed as one of the largest Southeast Asia malls, the Bangkokbased shopping centre is now proud partners with Central Pattana (CPN) Plc, which recently purchased 56 per cent of Siam Future Development Plc (SF), Ikano Centres’ joint venture partner in Bangkok over the past ten years. New tenant additions include Topgolf, which will bring together exciting entertainment offers for visitors in East Bangkok in Q2 2022.

Soulmates at Toppen Shopping Centre. MyGround at MyTOWN Shopping Centre.