Retail: Bullring to offer more to shoppers

Bullring to offer more to shoppers

Bullring & Grand Central’s general manager, Stephanie Lacey, looks ahead to 2021 following the reopening of the iconic centre.

When we fully reopened our doors last month following the third lockdown period in 12 months, we were encouraged to see customers heading back into the centre in a safe and sensible way.

As anticipated some of our stores saw queues as they reached capacity, but were safely managed and we were able to provide our usual high standards and experience. We have a number of safety measures in place in order to deliver a safe and enjoyable visit for customers including enhanced cleaning procedures, hand sanitiser stations and a one-way navigation system are the centre.

We’ve known for a while that retail has been evolving in line with customer’s needs and demands, and Covid has accelerated some of those changes. Customers are now looking for a more rounded experience when they visit our centre and that’s why we’re looking to introduce more leisure facilities to the scheme.

This month we hope, that in line with the government’s roadmap, the new Treetop Adventure Golf experience will open in the former Forever 21 unit. They are investing £2.5m to bring two indoor 18-hole mini golf courses to the West Mall as well as three new food and beverage offerings.

Also due to open soon is China’s largest hot pot restaurant chain, Haidilao. The 8,070sq ft restaurant in St Martin’s Square will be the brand’s first in the UK outside of

Retail Therapy

By Stephanie Lacey

General Manager, Bullring & Grand Central

London and will include traditional hot pots at every table with customers being able to choose from the brand’s renowned soups.

The two new brands join other new retailers such as VSK Vietnamese Street Kitchen, Kate Spade and Peloton that have also opened at the centre over the last 12 months. A continuous focus of ours is to ensure that we keep our offer fresh and exciting, we know that we need to give our customers a reason to keep coming back so the retail mix alongside events, mall enlivenment and commercialisation partnerships is key to helping to deliver the overall Bullring & Grand Central experience.

We hope that over the coming months, government guidance pending, we can unveil an events schedule to bring more enlivenment to our outdoor spaces whilst following social distancing protocols.

Finally, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everybody at Bullring & Grand Central who has kept essential stores and our food takeaway services open, along with keeping the centre clean while we’ve been in lockdown. We couldn’t have done it with you all.

New Italian restaurant opens in The Mailbox

Italian restaurant Lucarelli has finally opened its doors at the The Mailbox in Birmingham.

The 140-cover restaurant was due to open last December, but the coronavirus crisis put paid to that.

The new restaurant occupies the former Red Peppers site at the rear of the Mailbox.

Among its features is an £80,000 outdoor terrace which has a retractable roof and heating. The terrace seats 24 and the outdoor paved area has seating for 16 under parasols.

A Lucarelli spokesman said: “We’re hugely excited to be opening Lucarelli at the Mailbox, in such a fantastic location. We hope to create a ‘go to’ destination restaurant which places the customer at the heart of everything we do.

“Our staff hail from various regions across Italy and have the knowledge and passion for creating delicious, authentic recipes that we’re confident our guests will love. We look forward to welcoming diners for a safe and enjoyable experience with us”.

David Pardoe, head of retail, marketing and occupier engagement at the Mailbox, said: “Our canalside dining has always been incredibly popular with guests, and Lucarelli is the perfect addition to our existing selection of bars and restaurants.

“By continuing to bolster our leisure offer, we hope to continue to provide something different for our visitors.”