MAPIC 2023 NEWS 3

MAPIC AWARDS

SUSTAINABILITY

OUTLET SUMMIT

Last night at a glittering ceremony in the Palais des Festivals the best of the best were honoured

Klépierre’s Clémentine Pacitti spoke about the sustainability opportunity during a panel session at MAPIC

The designer outlet sector came together yesterday at a special premium networking session

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A new generation of retailers is redefining the retail landscape

Pitch Sessions with Live vote

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Exhibitors

Finalists

Global sponsors

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A selection of exhibitors…

La Belle Boucle offers access to the best natural products for curly hair through their online shop. Discovering and appreciating committed and passionate brands, effective products with healthy compositions is their core business.

Jaqk is a brand that designs menswear collections made from responsible, high-quality materials that stand the test of time. The brand pays particular attention to its essential pieces for a man’s wardrobe, with special attention paid to materials and colours, twisted with details.

Miss Cookies is a family-run coffee shop inspired by the New York coffee shops, offering customers a modern yet friendly place to enjoy hot and cold drinks as well as sweet and savoury recipes.

The organics is a personal care brand with honest, efficient and multifunctional unisex formulas.

100% Natural and Organic ingredients you want all on one only working system with just seven products

Aranyani is a luxury Indian brand that makes handbags whose design is inspired by the soul of India, while the artwork on the bags is all derived from the artistic heritage in a modern style.

Friendly Fire is an international gaming cafe franchise with 10 locations in 4 countries. It is a place for gamers who like to play with others, compete, improve, win and have a great time.

Friendly Fire is known for its amazing community and great atmosphere.

Përo International offers a wide range of trendy, stylish, seasonal and multicultural household items and kitchenware - fashionable kitchenware, kitchenware for the home and for the kitchen - at affordable prices and with high-quality products.

Possery is a French clothing brand that embodies a bold stylistic revival that combines respect for tradition by paying tribute to traditional craftsmanship with creativity and modernity thanks to each craftsman mastering a particular aspect of production.

They are exhibiting

And the 5 MAPIC Academy finalists

The World of Onyo France

Superstack Germany

W.O.P - World of Pop France

Greener Spain

t7berlin Germany

The winners for 2023 are...

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Once again the MAPIC Awards recognised outstanding achievements by real estate players, retail, leisure and F&B operators, with special honour Personality Of The Year going to Rituals’ Raymond Cloosterman

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R AY M O N D C L O O S T E R M A N CEO & FOUNDER, RITUALS

B E S T S T O R E D E S I G N BY F R E N C H D E S I G N E R S

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MAPIC 2023 PITCHING CONTEST

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Repurpose With Purpose: how to deal with unwanted retail space The Crown Estate’s Andrew Hearne and Sarah McLaren

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THE CROWN ESTATE INVITES THE WORLD TO LONDON

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THE CROWN Estate is at MAPIC to meet with potential occupants for spaces in some of its prestigious assets in central London.

A team from the fund, which is owned by the British monarch, is in Cannes to meet with retail, leisure, food and tourism brands interested in a move to the UK. The Crown Estate owns many of London’s most renowned sites, including Regent Street, Heddon Street, Maddox Street, and the upmarket St James’s district.

Sarah McLaren, the Crown Estate’s customer partnership manager for lifestyle, said that the group is at MAPIC with a view to “building partnerships and meeting brands”.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to look outside the UK,” she said. “It allows us to continue to evolve our partnerships and develop those conversations with brands.

“We take a long-term view of the estate. We continue to evolve and grow our portfolio.”

Andrew Hearne, director of place curation for The Crown Estate, said that the fund’s strategy is to maintain the West End’s strong standing in world retail while “maintaining a local relevance” for Londoners and British tourists to the West End.

“WE NEED to think about repurposing, making the space fit for purpose, and being relevant to the communities that utilise those spaces,” P-Three co-founder Thomas Rose said as he opened the Repurpose With Purpose conference in the Studio yesterday. “What is clear is that there is too much retail space across the sector as a whole so we have to do something with that space. And I don’t think it’s any longer acceptable just to demolish and redevelop.”

François Agache, managing director of development and operations, Apsys, which has around 35 schemes predominantly across France and Poland, said: “Repurposing for us involves rethinking sites to new uses but also for the uses of tomorrow. We have to think one step ahead about flexibility and even reversibility. For example, it is now necessary to think about good ceiling heights and the structural frameworks — a parking lot is the quintessence of the ‘not flexible’ product in our sector.”

Senior retail leasing director Landsec, Ruth McFetridge, gave the example of

a Landsec-owned shopping centre in St Davids, Cardiff. “We had the problem of a huge old 14,865 sq m Debenhams department store. What we’re going to do is demolish that department store and create a park — which is quite unheard of. It’s nice to be able to give something back to the community,” she said. “Taking a step back, it really is all about what is the right thing for the community and working very closely with the community in those spaces. If we can retain it we will. In this case it’s about dropping the building and creating some green space.”

Prof. Dr. Katharina Janus, president and CEO at consultancy Enjoy Strategy, gave her perspective as a specialist in the medical sector, which has increasingly been embedding healthcare ecosystems within shopping malls. “We work jointly with tenants to create the synergies to really integrate the system. That is important.

We are not talking about just leasing space. It can only work if you create a really symbiotic relationship.”

P-Three’s Thomas Rose

Apsys’ François Agache

Landsec’s Ruth McFetridge

Enjoy Strategy’s Katharina Janus

Landlords urged to put leisure first BRANDED entertainment entities established alongside retail parks and shopping centres can serve to better hold customers for longer when established in clusters. And there are benefits both for the entertainment operators and the retail landlords when they exist alongside each other.

“For many years leisure was added as a side piece but in the last two to three years we have seen landlords come to us first,” Merlin Entertainments’ group property director Christopher Bird said. Merlin introduced its first indoor mall-based attraction with Lego some 15 years ago.

Bird urged retail landlords to integrate leisure further within their offer and to work more collabora-

tively with leisure operators, especially considering the power of the branding affiliations it can bring.

Merlin Entertainments’ indoor attractions division is focused on both city-centre tourist destinations and shopping malls, where it will cluster two to three attractions, such as Peppa Pig, Legoland and Sealife together, attracting families and visitors of all ages and enabling an extended day out.

Going forward, Merlin Entertainments is looking to replicate the success of its presence in locations such as London — where its entertainment cluster sits alongside ferris wheel landmark the London Eye — in eight mega gateway cities across the world including Las Vegas, Orlando, New York, Sydney,

Shanghai, Tokyo and Amsterdam.

“Our core belief is you need a must-do attraction as a tentpole to drive the demand,” Bird said.

Merlin Entertainments group property director Christopher Bird

Post-pandemic innovation led to ‘golden age’ for the outlet sector

Arcus Real Estate’s Luca Nasi

by a revival of shopping tourism and innovations brought in across the portfolio post-COVID. The company has seen a revival of interest in outlet shopping, which Arcus general manager Luca Nasi has said is “swimming against the tide” of challenges hitting other retail spaces.

Nasi said that Arcus experienced something of a “golden age” in the period immediately after the 2020 pandemic, when many retailers with high levels of unsold stock turned to outlets for the first time.

Where many outlets rely heavily on tourism from Asia, in particular China, Nasi said that Arcus’ three outlets in Italy and one in Sicily benefit from

high levels of tourism from France, Switzerland and the UK. He said that the company remains focused on Italy, and that any future expansion of its portfolio would likely be within its domestic market.

Since COVID Arcus has introduced a number of innovations and renovations of its centres, such as bringing in facilities for childcare and baby feeding, improvements to its VIP lounges, new info points throughout its centres and hands-free shopping services.

Nasi said that the company has also embraced new digital services that allow customers to research the brands and products available in its centres online before visiting.

Rituals sees ‘exponential growth’ GETTING the fundamentals of a business correct before driving growth is essential to long-term success, said Raymond Cloosterman,

Rituals CEO Raymond Cloosterman

CEO and founder of Rituals, at yesterday’s MAPIC keynote address.

“Rituals wasn’t an overnight success,” he said. “It took four years to get

from one store to our second store.

We were told we had to choose luxury or mainstream and we decided to start in the middle. By staying close to this segment, we started to grow.

The first 10 years we were building and learning. The last 10 years have been about exponential growth and growing very fast.”

Today the company has more than 1,200 stores, and big expansion plans across Europe and Asia, as well as digitally. Cloosterman said the growth had been driven by a constant focus on innovation and investing in staff and that stores and the in-store service that they provide remain essential for the Rituals brand.

Ben Perman, interior design senior associate director at Benoy

TRANSFORMING ASSETS ENTICES VISITORS TO STAY LONGER REGENERATING and revitalising centres to become destinations that consumers want to visit and that take into account their changed behaviours and shopping trends has become a key focus for landlords and developers across the world as they look to the future, according to Ben Perman, interior design senior associate director at Benoy.

“We are seeing a shift in how they look to invest in their assets and how they are looking to transform them for the longer term,” he said. “It’s about high-quality design of landlord spaces that encourages visitors to dwell and stay for longer.

Investment in the malls — and experiences within — that will encourage better tenants to come or existing ones to invest, and adding in experiential leisure that pulls in footfall.”

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ITALIAN designer outlet operator Arcus Real Estate has returned to 2019 levels of brand sales, boosted

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MAPIC in pictures MAPIC featured an array of exhibitors from around the world during three action-packed days in the Palais des Festivals

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Arcus Real Estate

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Turkish Brands

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An activation by Prevost Patrice

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Mabanee project The Avenues

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Pradera

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The Nordic Pavilion by Nordic Commercial Spaces & Communities

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Panel sets out low-cost methods to achieve better sustainability

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THERE are wins in the fight for ESG that can be little or no cost but which offer big benefits, according to panelists on the ESG: From Cost To Opportunity session, co-organised with US-based consultancy FGB Studio, at MAPIC on Wednesday.

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Clémentine Pacitti, chief sustainability officer at French shopping centre developer Klépierre, said that the question that she gets asked most about environmental initiatives is how much capital expenditure might be re-

On the panel: FGB Studio’s Francesca Galati (left); Ceetrus’ Raluca Crisan; Klépierre’s Clémentine Pacitti; and HBB Centermanagement’s Anita Stampfi

quired. But she explained that there are many solutions that are not costly at all.

For example, she said, Energy Boost by Klépierre is a 48-hour zero-cost programme that involves a task force sent in to an asset to work with local onsite teams over two days and nights to analyse energy consumption.

The initiative involves four steps. Firstly, a paper review and fact-finding mission before the task force heads in for the first day and night to undertake a full practical and technical review within the asset using infrared cameras, airflow sensors and temperature probes to assess energy use. “That allows us to have tangible, manageable facts and we then review everything as a team,” she said.

On the second day, the teams work together to draft an action

plan for the next six months that includes zero investment or very short payback measures. The fourth step involves following up on the action plan. The results can be “amazing” she said, with up to 40% energy reductions over three to four months.

Importantly, learnings are also shared, she said. “Knowledge sharing is very important. It helps our people to gain experience, sharing their knowledge and innovation. We’ve tested it for many years now, please do the same,” she urged.

Explaining sustainability efforts at European developer Ceetrus, Raluca Crisan, portfolio director, said that the industry can’t afford to stand still with ESG initiatives and must move forward at pace.

“We cannot afford to stop and have a round of applause. We don’t have time for that,” she said.

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Money mismatch will go on, Eurofund fears THE INVESTMENT market is struggling with a virtually unprecedented disconnect between retail sales and the performance of retail assets, according to Ian Sandford, founder and president of Eurofund Group.

He said that problems caused by this mismatch, compounded by the scarcity of capital and debt, are likely to continue for some time. “I’ve never seen such a disconnect between the strength of the occupational market and the weakness of the investment market,” he said. “Retail is incre-

Eurofund Group founder and president Ian Sandford

dibly strong. The occupational market is very strong in prime shopping centres. But finance has gone.”

Sandford said that the lack of financing available to investors was causing big problems for those who would otherwise be looking to acquire assets.

It also means, he said, that investors are having to work “twice as hard” to maintain existing assets at prime levels.

“When you have to buy 100% of an asset with equity the price has to fall a long, long way for it to work,” he said.

He added that the prospects for improvements in the investment market now depend largely on factors outside funds’ control, in particular interest rates and the return of lending and debt.

However, Sandford said that Eurofund is in acquisition mode, as well as being interested in meeting new occupiers.

Last year the fund — based in Madrid — acquired the Silverburn shopping centre in Glasgow, which joins a diverse portfolio of retail, logistics and other assets throughout Europe, including Ubbo centre in Lisbon, Rhein-Ruhr-Zentrum in Germany and the Parma Promenade in Italy.

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New Shoppertrak AI tech upgrades consumer data TENANTS and landlords can elevate their customer data beyond simple people counting with new functionality from Shoppertrak Analytics by Sensormatic. Showing for the first time at MAPIC, the system adds an AI box to existing CCTV-camera networks to bring more sophisticated data and insights, according to Nick Pompa, general manager of Shoppertrak.

Users can subscribe to various modules within the system and associated user portal for insights into what’s happening in their stores or centres. That enables them to more closely monitor everything from security to health and safety, in addition to traditional retail uses such as traffic counting.

“We are finding our customers are

interested not just in counts of consumers but more about what’s going on in the centre and who the consumer is in terms of gender and age and how that differs, as well as the utilisation of the centre and where the hotspots are,” Pompa said.

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Shoppertrak general manager Nick Pompa

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Designer outlets enjoy sustained growth in Europe, Summit hears The summit was opened by industry veteran Ken Gunn, founder of Ken Gunn Consulting, who gave his analysis of the state of the sector. He told attendees that outlets “continue to be incredibly robust, and to grow at an incredible rate”, driven by consumers seeking out discount fashion and the revival of fashion tourism.

Gunn paid tribute to the sector’s ability to adapt to changing consumer habits, as evidenced by the increasing presence of exciting F&B brands in European outlets, and the

Delegates at the MAPIC Outlet Summit

dynamic mix of brands. The strong showing in the sector, he said, meant that many operators were in the welcome position of having more demand for space than space available.

As a result, he said, pent-up demand for new space is driving a healthy pipeline of development in the sector, especially in markets “which have yet to mature their outlet sector”.

Addressing investors with an interest in outlets, he praised the “ambitious targets for growth” that many are now showing, adding: “I believe there will be more consolidation and more investment in the industry going forward.”

Delegates also heard a keynote speech from Thomas Reichenauer, co-founder and managing director of ROS Retail Outlet Shopping, and a number of expert speakers, on the topics of ESG’s impact on outlets, and how to adapt offers to stay in line with customer expectations.

Brands need ‘passion for detail’ BEING passionate about detail, willing to adapt to local needs and sticking to brand beliefs are some of the key elements that set quality brands apart, according to panelists at the Good Brands, Great Brands, What’s The Difference? conference session co-organised with Whitespace Partners.

Itsu’s Nicholas Schapira; I Love Poke’s Rana Edwards; and Sushishop’s Christopher Jones

“What is important is to try to deliver what you stand for and what you believe in,” Christopher Jones, Sushishop president, Amrest Group, said.

When asked to pick some of their favourite brands, Nicholas Schapira, partnership director Itsu, cited members’ club Soho House. “They get into the details and elevate the experience and that makes you

want to travel the world to see what they’ve done. They have a blueprint and then they add the little details.”

Rana Edwards, co-founder and vice-president at I Love Poke, said she founded her brand to focus on healthy eating and said she translates her principles and values as a parent into the company. “It’s a very motherly brand,” she said.

C&W’s Yvonne Court

SHOPPERS LIKE TO ‘GET OUT AND TOUCH THE GOODS’ YVONNE Court, international partner at Cushman & Wakefield, who leads the EMEA cross-border retail & leisure team, told MAPIC News she is optimistic about prospects for 2024 after meeting many retailers at the market.

“Retailers are taking more stores, but it needs to be the right kind of space,” she said. “The days where you had a massive nationwide roll-out are over for most retailers. They are being much more selective in terms of the locations they want to go to, and also the terms that they are looking for.”

It all comes down to flexibility — especially for new retail, she said. “New brands going in to new markets want the flexibility that if it doesn’t work, they can get out,” she said.

“Online is still out there, but perhaps not at the rate it was during the pandemic.

Because there is a limit, and shoppers are innately social beings that like to get out, they like to touch the goods,” she added.

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THE DESIGNER outlet sector is enjoying a sustained period of growth and stability, bucking trends in the wider retail market. That was the key message to attendees at yesterday’s MAPIC Outlet Summit, co-organised with Resolution Property.

Delegates gathered to discuss the latest trends and opportunities in designer outlets, which are showing strong sales and visitor numbers throughout Europe. The exclusive event was moderated by Mayté Legeay of Resolution Property.

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Summit hears how retail can serve to revive modern cities

The Retail In The City summit

Conceição said, would be regeneration and transformation, which echoes the mood of the city and the country itself.

“If we had to pick two words today to describe Portugal, I would go for tradition and future,” she said, explaining that the country is changing and city regeneration is a crucial part of that.

Christian Dubois, head of retail services France, Cushman & Wakefield, talked about the retail landscape in France and the very positive impact coming from Paris hosting the 2024 Olympic Games.

He pointed out that the Champs Élysées is the fifth most expensive street in the world but that it had only seen an average of two transactions a year since 2014.

Over the past year there will have been nine transactions, he added.

Retail-taiment must think of all ages THERE WAS a packed house yesterday for the Leisure Summit as delegates gathered to hear insights into the latest trends in leisure and lifestyle destinations. The discussion

LDP’s Yael Coifman

was also a networking opportunity bringing together shopping mall owners and developers, attraction operators, creative suppliers, real estate professionals and leasing agents.

The session was opened by Yael Coifman, senior partner at LDP, a specialist boutique consulting practice focused on the economics of visitor attractions and leisure real estate. Coifman said there remained a psychological impact from the pandemic which their research suggests was still impacting consumer behaviour. “The truth is that Gen X and the boomers are not as likely to leave the house. So in terms of socialising we really have to focus the Millennials and Gen Z,” she said.

Yago Bonastre, global director F&B and leisure at Nhood, said leisure should be accessible to all. “You need to have an offer that speaks to eve-

ryone. You want the teenagers, you want to have the families that drive traffic, and you want to have the kids that drive satisfaction. And of course, you want to have the senior people because they have a lot of time. My mum retired last week. I can assure you she has a lot of free time and she is a perfect leisure guest.”

“For us, when we look at the retail-tainment model, people come to shop and they come to play and they make it a point of differentiation,” said Sandi Danick senior vice-president, head of leasing at Triple Five, which owns and operates the American Dream scheme in the New York area, Mall of America in Minneapolis and West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, Alberta.

“The environment for us is a retail entertainment mix and an ‘only-here’ offering,” she said.

The MAPIC Academy finalists pitch their ideas to the Nhood jury

ACADEMY FINALISTS GATHER AHEAD OF THE BIG REVEAL THE FINALISTS for the prestigious MAPIC Academy award for young entrepreneurs gathered to pitch their ideas for the last time ahead of the announcement of the winner, later in the evening.

More than 100 entries were received when MAPIC launched the initiative, designed to reward young people for their innovative retail concepts. By the time the finalists gathered on Wednesday evening there were only five companies remaining.

They met in the MAPIC Arena to pitch their business ideas in front of a jury that would then decide which company would be given a chance to develop their idea further.

The jury was made up of a team from French real estate developer Nhood, which is supporting the MAPIC Academy by providing free pop-up space to the winning company.

The five finalists were, in order of pitching, an innovative ear-piercing brand called Superstack; sustainable clothing concept W.O.P. World of Pop; Greener, an environmentally conscious fashion store; t7berlin, a sustainable knitwear business; and futuristic immersive entertainer Onyo.

The session was hosted by moderator Chris Igwe, who praised all five entrepreneurs for their ideas.

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THE RETAIL In The City summit yesterday, co-organised with Younicorn, brought together landlords, retailers, international cities and investors in a premium networking event.

The event took a close-up look at how a modern city, both in the centre and the suburbs, can be revived sustainably and how retail can play a key role in that process.

A wide range of speakers from across Europe gave their perspective on how cities can reinvent themselves in a way that remains attractive to retailers while providing for the needs of the community and visitors to the city.

Filomena Conceição, Nhood global head of business development, presented a new, large urban-regeneration scheme. The heart of Entrecampos, in Lisbon, Portugal, will be retail. The theme,

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Retail ‘isn’t even taking its first steps’ where AI is concerned

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Via Outlets chief executive Otto Ambagtsheer

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VIA OUTLETS SHOWS DOUBLE-DIGIT GROWTH A DESIGNER outlet group with centres throughout Europe is enjoying “double-digit growth” in brand sales across its portfolio, the company’s chief executive has said.

Speaking to MAPIC News, Otto Ambagtsheer, chief executive of Via Outlets, said that the company’s strong performance was down to its ability to continue to adapt to changing shopper expectations and tastes.

In order to continue to satisfy this, he said, the company is continually renewing its tenant mix and investing money to deliver an “evolving centre experience”.

Via Outlets is constantly reviewing its portfolio with a view to expansion through both acquisition and development.

“Expanding our centres is certainly a priority,” Ambagtsheer said. “We’re expecting to have a very strong year. Outlets is one of the fastest-growing channels.”

The company is in Cannes less than a month after completing a 4,000 sq m extension to its site in Seville, Spain. The €30m extension takes the Sevilla Fashion Outlet to over 20,000 sq m.

Via Outlets’ performance reflects a wider growth in the outlet sector, driven in part by a return of fashion-shopping tourism after the total freeze during COVID.

RETAIL property is at the very start of its artificial intelligence (AI) journey with years to go before the benefits can be fully harnessed, delegates at a dedicated session on the technology have heard.

A packed Innovation Stage heard on Wednesday how the use of AI is at a nascent stage but will eventually bring major rewards to the real estate industry.

Enhanced customer and retailer data analytics, greater integration of services and more efficient co-operation between landlords and tenants are all potential benefits to the industry, delegates were told.

The session, moderated by Michel Zalac, managing director of retail, ecommerce and real estate consultancy Zalac International, addressed the rising use of AI and its potential uses in property.

Speaking on the panel, Vantaan Valo managing director Jukka Vakula said that retail property was at the stage where “it isn’t even taking its first steps, it’s at the zero point”. But, he said that

this would change because in real estate there is a large amount of data in play, meaning great potential efficiencies.

“We have collected a lot of data on property and on customers. A shopping centre has a lot of data on its consumers and its retailers. Now it’s about finding something interesting out of that data.”

Markus Porvari, president and chief executive of HyperIn, said that the key role for AI in retail real estate could be in integrating data to increase co-operation and improve relations between landlords and tenants. “The challenge is the backend operations. It’s about how to

introduce AI features that bring tenant, landlord and consumer parts all together,” he said.

Marius Barbu, group asset director at NEPI Rockcastle, said that for this to happen, consumers will need to be convinced to share their data more readily than they currently are.

“When the consumer sees the value in it, they will share their data,” he said. “The problem is when you ask people for their data without getting anything back.”

Other potential uses for AI in retail and property are in improving sustainability and enabling greater brand innovation, delegates heard.

Yesterday’s dedicated artificial intelligence session at the MAPIC Innovation Stage

Work is under way on Manas Tower THE MANAS Tower 45 project is being presented to an international audience at MAPIC. The 45-storey complex in Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan will be the first of its kind to be built in the history of the republic.

Manas Tower’s Mikael Azoulay told MAPIC News: “This is a new tower which is 230 metres high, with 45 floors, a business centre, a conference room and many retail opportunities.” The retail area will consist of 11,700 sq m over four floors, with five or six big spaces and a shopping mall of 130 smaller units, he said. There will be 3,000 parking spaces inside and 800 parking spaces outside.

The five-star hotel will have 18 floors, with private apartments above, along with four restaurants, a pub and a pool.

“This country has eight million people, and we have many tourists. The hotel will be a magnet for tourists,” Azoulay said. “It will have 300 rooms and I’m sure it will be at least 80% capacity all the time. In Bishkek we have Hyatt, Sheraton and Novotel, and all the time they are full. There is a real demand.”

In a historic moment for the Kyrgyz Republic, President Sadyr Japarov laid the foundation capsule for the complex earlier this month.

Manas Tower’s Mikael Azoulay

029_RX OUR SUSTAINABILITY_N3_PIC

MAPIC Is committed to sustainability How we’re making our show more sustainable Since 2022 we have been working with GreenBee Event Upcycling to reduce our carbon footprint in an action plan with 3 pillars: • Rethinking the way we design and reuse materials • Carefully choosing materials and reducing our plastic consumption • Championing local employment Inclusion & Diversity

Discover our initiatives

GreenBee Event Upcycling is a not for profit association based in Cannes whose aim is to promote the reduction of various wastes materials linked to the event industry.

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