CBRE IM’s Eric Decouvelaere on the need for detail; SEVEN launches on the world stage at MAPIC; Ingka Centres; Daiso; Wingstop; Cushman & Wakefield; Neinver; and more...
MINISO:
Chinese retailer Miniso is among a host of retailers in Cannes looking for international expansion opportunities
Conferences
LEISURE SUMMIT:
Yesterday’s Leisure Summit was one of six premium networking summits held in the Palais des Festivals this week
The winners for 2024 are...
Once again the MAPIC Awards recognised outstanding achievements by real estate players, retail, leisure and F&B operators, with special honour Lifetime Achievement Award going to Didier Roche of Dans le Noir?
RETAIL BRAND OF THE YEAR
FOOD & BEVERAGE BRAND OF THE YEAR
KIKO MILANO ITALY
FIVE GUYS JV US
INGKA GROUP - ONE DROP STORE SWEDEN
HUPALUPA TURKEY
BASKETBALL
BEST FOOD HALL & FOOD COURT
COMMUNALE – FREY FRANCE
BEST STORE DESIGN IN PARTNERSHIP WITH INSTITUT FRANÇAIS DU DESIGN
INFINIMENT CHOCOLAT FRANCE
BEST NEW DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
LIVAT XI’AN – INGKA CENTRES SWEDEN
DIDIER ROCHE - CO - FOUNDER OF DANS LE NOIR? FRANCE
BEST URBAN REGENERATION PROJECT BEST RETAIL INNOVATION & AI PROJECT
GREENWISE ENERGY USAGE TRANSITION AND REDUCTION FOR CARREFOUR – FLORAWISE FRANCE
PEOPLE’S CHOICE
PORTA A MARE WATERFRONT, LIVORNO – IGD SIIQ ITALY
SPECIAL PRIZE OF THE JURY
MAPIC ACADEMY AWARD
KAYANEE SAUDI ARABIA
PALAIS DES THES FRANCE
MAPIC ACADEMY AWARD SPONSORED BY
We must embrace both physical and digital as retail faces ‘change’
THE RETAIL industry needs to be more thorough and detailed than ever in order to thrive, as the market continues to reorganise itself around the joint requirements of ecommerce and physical retail, said Eric Decouvelaere, head of EMEA urban destinations at CBRE Investment Management.
“The retail capital market was still down before the pandemic because the industry was reorganising itself around ecommerce. Now there’s the proof in the pudding that there is the need for both ecommerce and physical retail, but as the market will pick up I hope we as an industry will have learned our lessons.”
He said the market had to avoid oversupply, supply what the market actually needs, and not overpromise delivery — and that detail was more important than ever. “Now we are embarking on a new time of acquisition, I think we will need to be extremely thorough and detailed in our underwriting,” he said.
Looking to the future, he said that he saw big changes coming in the retail market in the next few years. “The brand mix will be different. There will be more space dedicated to places to gather and experience, and very different tenants — including tenants where you will rent
things rather than own — and places to recycle.”
Sustainability will be key, he said: “You have to walk the walk and a retail destination has to be environmentally friendly. This is a really big challenge and requires working with tenants and converting all those assets into sustainable places.”
Alongside these ESG responsibilities Decouvelaere said the industry would have to create true community engagement and true conviction of an offer. “You can’t do retail by default. If you don’t have the conviction, you will do very dull retail.”
He said it was also important for the market to support the ambition of pureplay retailers to expand across channels. “When you look at pure players you see more who want to embrace physical as they see the limitations of online only. We need to help those people to establish themselves and have teams able to help them in opening a store.”
MAPIC is first global outing for SEVEN
SAUDI Entertainment Ventures (SEVEN) is using MAPIC to introduce its brand to the global market, with the event being the first international showcase for its proposed 21 entertainment destinations, which will all be located within Saudi Arabia.
SEVEN has committed to invest SAR50bn (€12bn) to develop the entertainment destinations, with over 150 attractions, in partnership with international brands, across 14 cities throughout Saudi Arabia. Projects being taken forward by SEVEN include a €720m entertainment destination in Al Hamra District, Riyadh, with a total GLA of approximately 50,000 sq m, and which is set to house 41 F&B outlets and 18 retail stores. Matthew Dadd, executive director of commercial and leasing at SEVEN, said that the company was excited to be at MAPIC to introduce the brand and the array of projects to an international audience. He said that five of the 21 upcoming schemes would open their doors next year.
“We will be announcing their official opening dates very shortly,” he said. “Construction is between 50% and 65% complete on the projects currently, and each will include a mix of entertainment, retail, F&B and educational elements.”
The destinations typically consist of around 70-80% of the space allocated to entertainment, with the remaining 2030% a combination of retail and F&B.
“Our model is a hybrid one; we are not a shopping centre and we are not a theme park. Instead, we create immersive destinations which will allow, for example, people to have a coffee at one of our cafes while they watch an activation
such as people using our Clip & Climb climbing wall or skydiving,” Dadd said. The development initiative has also been conceived to be part of the Saudi Arabian government’s wider Saudi Vision 2030 programme, which has the goal of achieving increased diversification economically, socially and culturally across the country by the end of the decade.
“It’s been a great MAPIC for us, with lots of opportunities to speak with potential occupiers and also to formally get the message out there about the opportunities to work with us on these ambitious projects,” he added.
FRENCH SUMMIT SETS OUT NEW RETAIL VISION
THE FRENCH retail and real estate market was in the spotlight yesterday, as a broad array of members from the industry came together for the French Summit to discuss investment trends, real estate projects and the growth of French brands. The two-hour summit was introduced by Carmila CEO Marie Cheval, before an analysis of the investment market for shopping centres by AEW associate director Ana Vuckovic and LaSalle Investment Management head of real estate management Angélique Houbre. Other sessions included an assessment of the transformation of shopping centres with a panel that included Frey chairman and CEO Antoine Frey, Compagnie de Phalsbourg president Philippe Journo, Apsys managing director Celine Poix, and Nhood and Ceetrus chairman Antoine Grolin.
The final session focused on a new vision for retail and adaptation to change, with contributions from Procos director general Emmanueal Le Roch, PDPAOLA sales director Julien Porte and F1 Arcade senior global development advisor Didier Souillat. Participants could also network with fellow delegates and speakers after the formal sessions concluded. According to the latest figures from JLL, released during MAPIC, €940m was invested in the French retail real estate market over Q3 2024, taking the year-to-date volume for this sector to just under €2bn. This is a 12% year-on-year decrease and was 35% below the five-year average. However, retail accounted for 24% of the commercial real estate investment market during the period, confirming investor appetite for this asset class.
Eric Decouvelaere, head of EMEA urban destinations at CBRE Investment Management
Matthew Dadd, executive director commercial and leasing, SEVEN
PDPAOLA’s Julien Porte (left); F1 Arcade’s Didier Souillat; and moderator Simon Boutigny
MAPIC in
pictures
MAPIC featured an array of exhibitors from around the world during three action-packed days in the Palais des Festivals
Ingka outlines expansion plans for Europe, China and India
INGKA Centres, the sister real estate business to IKEA, is in Cannes meeting partners and brands as it expands its shopping-centre business predominantly in Europe, but also in China and India.
Vasco Santos, global sales and leasing director, Ingka Centres, told MAPIC News: “We are a unique development in the sense that we are present from San Francisco to Shanghai, with this beautiful project in India, with an established and growing portfolio in Europe.”
In terms of customer trends in European markets there is focus on affordability, he said. “People have been living with some constraints with their budget so they try to find those that deliver value for money, and we are a company that are there for the many people, that’s our vision. So, of course, we are trying to address those needs, but it’s more than that.
People want to spend their time in a meaningful way. And that’s where all our focus in the past years has been. On what it is that communities need.”
For Ingka Centres, Santos said, that is not just about putting together relevant partners, but providing different layers of the experience.
“This focus on community is at the same time delivering good business”
“We have hundreds and hundreds of event experiences, all kinds of entertainment initiatives, and we look at how to bring more value to the communities, with something that might
not be material. But now also supports their lives every day. And this focus on community is at the same time delivering good business for our partners,” he said.
“That’s the intersection that we’ve been trying to create and I think we’ve been rather successful looking at the figures in terms of performance, and the footfall now we have recovered from COVID. Now our partners are happy with the business they have.”
Santos stressed Ingka Centre’s continuing belief in physical retail and a belief that that is how you create bonds with communities — providing a platform where brands can connect with customers.
“We are also putting our skin in the game, in the sense that we’ve been developing and co-creating our own concepts, being ourselves part of that journey, not just being the platform
as such but also to come up with new solutions,” he said. Initiatives such as flexible co-working spaces demonstrates Ingka’s desire to develop and co-create with partners, he added.
Ingka’s Vasco Santos
Diriyah looks to global brands
THE COMPANY behind one of the world’s largest real estate development projects has outlined its vision to the international market at an exclusive briefing.
Diriyah Company executives are in Cannes to present the masterplan for an entirely new city in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, on an ancient site with deep connections with the heritage of the state.
The SAR236bn (€60bn) Diriyah Square project, on the outskirts of the capital Riyadh, will deliver huge tracts of space and assets of every property class across a 14-km site.
Once completed, Diriyah Square will include some 18,000 residential units, with space for 100,000 residents, 1.6 million sq m of office space, 566,000 sq m of retail space and 30 new hotels.
Addressing invited attendees at a briefing held at the Majestic hotel in Cannes yesterday, Alfie Gibbs, chief
development officer at Diriyah Company, said that the project will be “more than just a physical space, it is a celebration of community”.
“It’s about building a community, a city that reflects our values. It’s something quite extraordinary.”
Gibbs said that the retail aspect of the
“More than just a physical space, it is a celebration of community”
he said. “Retailers have been very interested to learn more. We’re having lots of those conversations.”
The retail element is to be made up of a mixture of local, regional and international brands, including, Gibbs said, major globally-recognised retailers.
“We’re talking to the biggest brands in the world,” he said. “We’re open for business.”
“We want to create a brand experience and retail space that gets the local population to stay in Saudi Arabia.
“We’re looking for partnerships with brands to make it the best-in-class retail offer that historically hasn’t been the case here. We think that Diriyah
Diriyah Square, known as the City of Earth, is close to the ancient Arabian UNESCO World Heritage site of At-Turaif, in an area considered the
Diriyah Company’s Alfie Gibbs
CROWN ESTATE PLANS ‘RENEWAL’ OF LONDON’S WEST END
THE CROWN Estate is developing three major sites in London’s West End, adding a total of 25,000 sq m of new retail, office and leisure space.
Work has already begun on the three sites close to London landmarks Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus, which The Crown Estate says will help to “stimulate the renewal of the West End, attract global investment and contribute to the wider success of London”.
The projects, a mixture of retrofits, refurbishments and redevelopments, are taking shape at New Zealand House, on Haymarket, 10 Spring Gardens, close to St James’ Park, and at 33-35 Piccadilly, which will deliver new retail, leisure and office space.
Simon Harding-Roots, managing director for London at The Crown Estate said: “These three developments form part of our wider investment in the future of the capital.”
BEVERLY HILLS POLO CLUB EXPANDS
ACROSS INDIA
BEVERLY Hills Polo Club arrived at MAPIC having opened its 25th store in India at Mall of Dehradun earlier this year. Established in 1982, Beverly Hills Polo Club offers a wide range of fashion and lifestyle products, including footwear, eyewear, watches, fragrances, handbags and wallets. Apparel Group India has been the driving force behind Beverly Hills Polo Club’s presence in India, while the retailer has also re-opened its store at Al Nakeel Mall, Riyadh, bringing its overall presence across the GCC and India to 160 stores.
“As we continue to grow, our focus remains on combining luxury with accessibility, ensuring that our customers receive the best of both worlds,” Apparel Group’s CEO, Neeraj Teckchandani said.
MAPIC women’s breakfast raises issue of male dominance in retail
WOMEN need to be more daring and demand their rightful place at the top, according to those attending the first MAPIC Women in Property Retail Networking Breakfast yesterday.
“We need to ask for what we deserve, step out of our comfort zone and stop doubting and dare,” said Vanessa Zouzowsky, head of CMG Retail France at Cushman & Wakefield and a member of L’Observatoire de la Parité.
She said change in France was progressing well, but more needed to be done. “We need a bigger change in culture in companies,” she said. “It’s not just about adding more women around the table it’s about giving them additional responsibilities.”
Zouzowsky said that while support had to come from the top it was also important to include men. “Once they become involved, they become great ambassadors,” she said.
Cristina Lazzati, editor-in-chief of Mark Up and member of Le Donne
del Retail, a networking group established in 2023, said that more needs to be done in Italy as well.
“The number of female CEOs in retail in Italy can be counted on one hand,” she said.
Neda Tassoubi, lawyer at Jeantet and a member of LiRE (Ladies in Real Estate), said that in the UK the representation of women in retail currently stands at 65% but needs a greater representation in management and executive positions, with only 19% of women in executive roles. “The leadership in the retail sector is still dominated by men today,” she said.
Speaking during a fireside chat at the event, Alison Rehill-Erguven, CEO of Cenomi, said that it was important for women to keep learning and have a good support network. “Women have a tendency to take it all on and not ask for help,” she said.
Wrapping up, Monica Cannalire, moderator of the event and founder and managing director of Younicorn, said she wanted to thank MAPIC for the women’s networking breakfast which she hoped would be the first of many. “It’s important that this safe space is created,” she said.
AI may put an end to Porter’s value chain
LEADING names in tech were sharing their insights on the Innovation Stage on Wednesday in the conference Retail and Property AI: Optimise, Personalise, Communicate. The session examined how the tool can improve engagement between retailers and consumers, optimise physical-retail efficiency and enhance communication and personalisation.
Alessandro Zanotti, managing director, Accenture Song, the digital arm of Accenture, urged the attendees not to be scared of AI. He recommended taking a dual approach to getting started with AI which he called No Regrets, Strategic Bets. “First, there are some things where there are no regrets. If you have the opportunity to do one thing in one minute instead of five and gain productivity, why are you doing things in the old way?” he said. Secondly, he added, there is an opportunity to invent totally new businesses. Companies can create new platform
businesses and new services with AI. Discussing examples of AI solutions, Zanotti highlighted a grocery shopping virtual assistant — a modern wizard based on generative AI which guides customers in the discovery of recipes that best fit their taste and necessities, and which has the benefit of automated cart fulfilment while providing an innovative shopping journey. Commenting on the impact of AI, Giulia Staffieri, chief marketing sales omnichannel officer, Leroy Merlin, said current business models are rapidly changing. The Porter’s value-chain model is becoming obsolete
because of technology, and particularly artificial intelligence, she said. “We need to rethink how we lead our companies and how our business is driven.” Regarding the operation of businesses, she said it is not enough to be efficient. “We need companies that are super agile. We need to shift the business model very fast in terms of people and in terms of processes.”
Also on stage was Charlotte Journo-Baur, CEO, Wishibam, who gave examples of successful AI implementation and demonstrated how AI can help major retailers bridge the gap between physical and digital.
Charlotte Journo-Baur (left), Alessandro Zanotti and Giulia Staffieri
Cenomi CEO Alison Rehill-Erguven: ‘Women have a tendency to not ask for help’
Look for partnerships rather than profits, asset owners are told
ASSET owners should treat their relationship with leisure and entertainment operators as a “partnership” and focus less on the generation of typical commercial revenues from them, a leading voice on the use of leisure and entertainment in real estate centres has said.
Addressing the burgeoning use of entertainment and leisure as complements to traditional retail property spaces, Yaël Coifman, senior partner at Leisure Development Partners, urged owners to think in a different way. She said: “More often than not the retail owners and developers seem to think they can get a commercial rent. You can’t. It’s a lot harder.
“They’re capital intensive in terms of investment. The margins can be pretty challenging specifically because the labour costs more than anything else, so they can’t generally pay typical commercial rents.
“You need to think of this as a partnership between the landlord, or owner, and the attraction operator.”
Coifman was speaking at a networking and learning event covering the
leisure sector, at MAPIC yesterday. She ran through some of the key issues and opportunities facing both landlords and asset owners, and the leisure operators themselves, and the different types of leisure and attraction offerings open to owners.
The packed Leisure Summit event was aimed at encouraging property professionals with an interest in the sector to network and gain insights into the latest trends and concepts hitting the market.
Delegates were also treated to a presentation from Matthew Dadd, development director of Saudi Entertainment Venues, known as SEVEN, which is currently constructing a vast pipeline of new attractions and
leisure-led projects throughout the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
SEVEN has plans to deliver 21 new entertainment venues in 14 Saudi cities, forming a key aspect of the kingdom’s long-term Vision 2030 project.
Dadd described the overall pipeline project as a mark of a big “social, cultural and economic change” in a country which is shifting towards more leisure and retail-led development.
He added that SEVEN’s projects are mosty “entertainment-led” with retail, and F&B as ancillary, while other developers in the region have traditionally focused on retail.
The first of the SEVEN projects is scheduled for completion in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Daiso takes first steps into Europe
JAPANESE retailer Daiso, which aims to offer ‘impressive quality at an impressive price’ is at MAPIC this week on the hunt for distributors looking to introduce the company’s store concepts to Europe. Its stores consist of a range of miscellaneous, value goods including stationery and kitchenware. Miscellaneous goods comprise around 80% of the product mix, with food making up the remainder.
Daiso Industries, which was founded 52 years ago, currently operates more than 5,300 stores — around 4,000 of which are in Japan. The company opened its first overseas stores in Taiwan in 2001 and has since expanded to 26 countries and regions outside of Europe.
“We have stores in Japan, Asia, the US, Brazil and the Middle East, but nothing here in Europe,” said Hong Sik Park, executive vice-president and CFO of Daiso Industries Company. “It’s a very
attractive market for us. That’s why we are coming here, to let people understand what Daiso is,” he said.
Daiso Industries operates three fascias. The standard Daiso store format dominates, with more than 4,000 stores, selling 76,000 items, 90% of which are developed in-house. These are sold at a
COMMUNITY MUST BE AT THE HEART OF A PROJECT
PUTTING the community at the heart of a project’s success was the theme for a session in The Studio on Wednesday.
Nawaf Rajeh, development and innovation marketing senior director, Diriyah Company, stressed the importance of community involvement in the Diriyah development, near Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. “We have to be a good neighbour. We have to understand what the community needs, what their requirements are for the future,” he said. For example, the company mandated that 20% of the workforce had to come from the local community. “We have already reached 18%, and 50% of those are in leadership positions in our organisation,” he added.
¥100 price point (the rough equivalent of €0.65). Around 1,200 new products are launched in stores each month.
Two additional formats were launched two years ago. Standard Products is a slightly more premium offer, with the tagline ‘a little better is always really nice’. It operates around 150 stores worldwide, mainly in Japan. Meanwhile, Threepy, with the tagline of ‘adorable just for you’, operates 500 stores worldwide, also mostly in Japan. Both Standard Products and Threepy offer products at around a ¥300 price point (just under €2).
Park said the company was looking at the potential of all three brands in Europe. “We would like to spread these three brands over the world and are looking for distributors at MAPIC,” Park said. Around a quarter of the company’s 5,300 stores are currently run by distribution partners.
Jenni Nylander, human rights and social impact leader, Ingka Centres, said Ingka works hard to understand and connect with the many different types of community, not just geographical. “For us, everything we do circles around the many people and the needs of our future and current visitors. And from that we understand what kind of sub-communities exist within this context,” she said.
Filomena Conceição, global head of business development, Nhood, cited the Entrecampos project in the heart of Lisbon, Portgual. She said the site has an emotional and historic connection for the community and it was vital all stakeholders were involved from an early stage. “It’s the type of project where, if you do not involve the community, there will be a refusal,” she said.
Matthew Dadd of Saudi Entertainment Venues/SEVEN (left) and Yaël Coifman of Leisure Development Partners and Themed Entertainment Association
Hong Sik Park, executive vicepresident and CFO of Daiso Industries Company
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Local partners are key to brand expansion, conference hears
SUCCESSFUL international food retail brand expansion relies on finding the right fit and the right partners, but also listening and adapting to local markets where necessary, delegates at the They Are Doing it: Brands Expanding Beyond Borders keynote, said yesterday.
“A brand partner is a combination of the partner themselves and the market,” said Alan Francis Honan, vice-president of international development at Wingstop, who was speaking on the panel alongside Arnaud van Coppennolle, senior development of Krispy Kreme and Mario Bauer, founder of WhiteSpace Partners. “The level of support we give our partners is something we invest a lot in,” he said. Wingstop began offering franchises in 1997, three years after its initial launch. “We are 30 years old this year,” he said. “We opened in Dallas in 1994. The menu was very simple — it was [chicken] wings, fries and sauce. We say we’re not in the chicken business,
Being
we are in the flavour business.”
Honan said that personalisation, digitalisation, menu adaptation and data-driven marketing were important in building the brand, as well as having the humility to listen: “We are perhaps the biggest brand you’ve never heard of.”
true to brand is
TWO PROPERTY executives from major European retail brands have discussed the challenges and opportunities of rolling out store openings in new markets.
Pascal Clausse, senior vice-president for global retail at French mountain sports and footwear retailer Salomon, and Nigel Keen, chief property development officer at UK sports clothing brand JD Sports Fashion, met to share their thoughts on strategies for cross-border expansion at a MAPIC conference yesterday.
Addressing the Retail Without Frontiers session, the directors described the journeys their companies have been on since moving beyond their domestic markets. Keen said that one of the keys to JD Sports’ “very aggressive expansion plan” internationally — which to date has taken the group portfolio to over 4,500 stores — was the hard work the company puts into acquiring local knowledge on top of a well-established core-expansion strategy.
He said: “We had a good team and we
Honan said the cook-to-order business is highly digitalised, with more than 70% of its sales coming through digital channels, but that it aims to become 100% digital.
“Our goal is to be one of the top-10 global brands,” he said. “The company has 2,500 locations with 300 having opened in the last 12 months. These include 54 in the UK, of which half launched in the last year.”
Ultimately Honan said the company has a stated goal of 10,000 units.
“We are relatively new to the international arena,” he said. “We are currently in 11 international markets and are about to launch a few more.”
He said that brand awareness was increasing fast, however, as the brand expands and works with local partners — and that networking had played a huge part in that.
“In terms of our business development journey, 12 months ago I was picking up the phone. Today I’m answering it,” he said.
‘non-negotiable’
had good processes in the UK. We had good disciplines and we’ve replicated that in each of the markets we’ve gone into.
“We’ve built teams with a similar structure, we’ve built teams to gain that local knowledge, particularly around acquisition, project management and design, where you need to have that local expertise.
“And we’ve made sure that all the processes are very consistent across all the different markets, so everybody has clear goals and responsibilities that we roll out on a consistent basis.”
Keen added that once a location had been decided upon, it was essential that a store has the “right presence”, espe-
cially where it was the first in a market.
To ensure this, he said, the company has a policy of directly owning and managing new stores in key markets, as opposed to seeking franchise partners.
Clausse said that one of the most important aspects of expanding a retail offering overseas was to maintain a “non-negotiable” position on compromising brand values.
He said: “You have to have a very clear brand purpose and this has to be global. It’s what the brand is about. It’s our belief. This is really the starting point.
“You do not want to negotiate the brand experience. It’s the face of the brand. You have to decide who you are.”
PLACE-MAKING REQUIRES ‘LONGTERM VISION’
UK RETAIL property consultancy and place-making specialist
P-Three is in Cannes on the back of a five-year period in which the company has expanded rapidly.
P-Three was created in 2019 by Hannah McNamara, Thomas Rose and Justin Taylor, former Cushman & Wakefield executives.
Offering three core services — leasing; consultancy and master-planning; and tenant representation — it has grown steadily, acting as leasing agent on a number of prestigious sites including Elephant Park, the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and Battersea Power Station in London; and the St James Quarter in Edinburgh. Commenting on P-Three’s approach – which includes developing masterplans with owners and local authorities with placemaking in mind — McNamara said: “We have to look at future societal changes and how that is going to impact spaces and places. It’s about future stargazing and sometimes taking on locations that can be a challenge.”
She added that currently the market is showing a mixed picture, with prime locations reporting strong demand and growth, but with the “depth of that demand” being less than it had been.
However, she warned, demand for space on secondary locations had “completely dropped off”. She said that the historic connection between prime and secondary locations — whereby a rise in demand for the former would pull up secondary sites with it — has been “disconnected”, pointing to troubling times ahead for those less sought-after locations.
P-Three’s Hannah McNamara (left) and Thomas Rose
Alan Francis Honan, vicepresident of international development at Wingstop
Salomon’s Pascal Clausse (left) and Nigel Keen of JD Sports Fashion
Delegates at the AI, New Business Challenges workshop yesterday
AI WILL SPARK AN ‘UNPRECEDENTED REVOLUTION’
RETAIL property professionals and lawyers specialising in the sector met to discuss the ethical dilemmas posed by the rise of AI at a MAPIC session yesterday.
Delegates at the AI, New Business Challenges workshop, were asked to discuss and evaluate the ethical challenges involved in adopting AI, and to consider the need for “utmost care” in harnessing its power.
The session, moderated by Bertrand Courtois-Suffi, chief executive of Mall & Partners, explored the potential benefits and responsibilities raised by this “unprecedented revolution”. Attendees were asked to form groups and discuss aspects of the challenge, including the implications of AI on free will and self-determination, privacy, liability, accountability, and the fairness and bias of algorithms. They also discussed new governance initiatives and legislative protections, including the EU-wide Artificial Intelligence Act — which came into effect in August this year — described as a “green light to the first worldwide rules on AI”.
One delegate cited the controversial use of real-time biometric facial recognition at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, pointing out that the same technology will be outlawed in Europe next year, by the Artificial Intelligence Act.
The workshop concluded with comments from Joaquim Pereira Mendes, chief legal, tax and compliance officer at real estate investment firm Sonae Sierra. Mendes described the “profound and universal” effects of AI, which he said will now be “irreversible”.
Industry and consumers showing ‘resilience’ as business improves
A LACK of available prime-retail space may be frustrating, but businesses have to hold out for the right space rather than rush into deals, Ben Binns, partner and head of agency, cross-border retail and leisure at Cushman & Wakefield told MAPIC News.
“The single recurring message is the scarcity of supply in most countries and markets,” he said. “That’s a reflection of the strength of demand. That’s a frustration for all parties but it is testament to people trading well.” He said while that had started to become apparent in the last year, the situation had become particularly acute in the last six months.
Looking across borders, Binns said a number of trends were evident in the retail market both by country and by individual major shopping cities.
“Germany is still not where it was but it’s coming back,” he said. “Paris is strong and Milan is incredibly strong — probably the strongest as it’s the fashion capital and is a more concen-
F&B
trated space. In Spain, Barcelona and Madrid are also performing well.”
“Broad brush, everywhere the message would be one of resilience,” he said. “We’ve seen that with the consumer too. Spending has been tightening
but people are still out there and that’s translating to sales.”
More retail space may become available post-Christmas as retailers reassess store locations depending on how they have traded through the peak period, he said. In the meantime, retailers need to play a waiting game until the right space becomes available. “For some there could be reviews of locations so we could see a fallout there. In the meantime, it’s about being creative and patient. Our advice is ‘Don’t compromise but play the long game’. Where it starts to go wrong is when you take space to tick a box. You can’t do that anymore, you need to be steadfast.”
Leisure is also increasingly taking centre stage, Binns said: “It used to be niche but now it’s a meaningful part of the conversation and we have got people wanting to talk about leisure. Landlords are seeing the benefit and are working harder to make the space work now it’s higher up the priority list.”
essential to strong outlets market
SPANISH multinational Neinver, a pioneer in the outlet sector, is at MAPIC as it continues to enhance the network of outlet centres it owns and operates across Europe under The Style Outlets and Factory brands.
Eduardo Ceballos, asset management director of the group, told MAPIC News: “We are currently running 20 centres in our portfolio and generally the trend has been quite positive in all the markets. Overall, we have seen growth in sales of 8% and we are seeing this trend until year-end which shows a very good performance overall.”
He said the company is focused on improving assets for its customers and enhancing the customer experience. Refurbishments have been taking place in Spain at The Style Outlets in Getafe in Madrid and Viladecans in Barcelona.
“Currently we are starting works at Vicolungo and Castel Guelfo in Italy where F&B is the activity where we are really
growing and investing with our tenants,” he said. The company is planning to begin works in the next few weeks at Las Rozas in Spain. “We are starting renovations touching all the elements of the centre including the common areas, the façade and a new access. And there are more plans coming,” he said.
Ceballos said improving the offer to customers with renovation and updates is key and pointed to F&B as an area of particular growth: “We are expanding our F&B footprint in the
centres. F&B is generally growing in all retail concepts, in outlets generally, and also in our outlets. As long as we are increasing this footprint, results will come in.”
Ceballos said he sees the outlets market as a very positive proposition for brands, as the company continues with expansion works with both new stores and improvements to current stores.
Investing in the customer experience and new concepts is also key, he said. “It’s a win-win for brands and owners.”
Neinver’s Eduardo Ceballos
Ben Binns, partner and head of agency, cross-border retail and leisure at Cushman & Wakefield
