Italy's major railway stations are getting a makeover now that Italian rail operator, Ferrovie dello Stato, is partnering with Benetton Group, Caltagirone Group, Pirelli Group and Sncf Participations to upgrade and manage the country's 13 largest railway stations.
Italy's major railway stations are getting a makeover now that Italian rail operator, Ferrovie dello Stato, is partnering with Benetton Group, Caltagirone Group, Pirelli Group and Sncf Participations to upgrade and manage the country's 13 largest railway stations.
The project, Grandi Stazioni, is on a mission to refurbish, manage and commercialise the stations which service over 600 million people passing through them every year, Grandi Stazioni's general manager, Stefano Mereu, told the ICSC European conference in London on Tuesday.
'Grandi Stazioni was needed because the stations were losing money on their buildings. We can make them profitable through a dedicated company and a private approach to improving the physical environment of the station,' he explained.
The project is working, according to Mereu: 'Desigual (the Spanish fashion retailer, ed.) decided to move into the Italian market by opening at Milan station after we had completed work there.'
While the dwell time at railway stations is only 20 minutes compared to 1 hour 20 minutes for an airport, the right retail formats can work for consumers who are young, curious, tech-savvy and with a high spending capacity, he added.
'For the right retailer in the right sized units, it works,' said Mereu. He added that railway station retail has an advantage over airport retail centres because they appeal to the non-travelling customer as well.
Toy retailer Hamleys reported that Heathrow Terminal 5 is its most profitable retail space in terms of sales and turnover thanks in part to the longer average dwell time. Chief financial officer, Alasdair Dunn, said: 'Airports have customers that fit with our offer, be that business people making speedy purchases, families going on holiday or tourists.'
