Ingka Centres opens nearly half its global malls as lockdowns lift

All of its malls in Poland, France, Czech Republic, Switzerland and Croatia have reopened since April, along with centres in China and Germany.

Centres across Italy, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Spain and the UK remain temporarily closed; seven other sites Sweden and Finland remained open throughout the crisis, with additional health and safety guidelines in place.

Gerard Groener, global managing director of Ingka Centres said: 'As one of the first international businesses to encounter coronavirus we are now among the first to help tenants reopen and rebuild their footfall. While it is too early to see significant differences between markets, it is clear that customers are keen to get back to a normal life.'

According to Ingka, footfall figures from the reopened centres are encouraging. In China, visitors to Livat Centres in Beijing and Wuxi in April reached 67 and 81% of equivalent figures from last year.

Livat Wuhan has been most affected, resetting to a footfall of 45% after a fortnight of trading. In Poland, after 51 days of lockdown, footfall has returned to 87% of 2019 figures, with nine in ten stores open. Spending on the whole is up, with turnover at the Livat Centre Wuxi reaching 104% of the equivalent period last year.

Ingka Centres operates 45 centres in 15 different markets in Europe, plus Russia and China, and would normally see 480 million people visit its malls each year.

'We are seeing visitors value the consistency of safety and reliability standards in place across our centres, with our additional hygiene and cleaning measures proving successful in helping to rebuild public confidence in communities spending time together once again,' Groener added.

Across territories yet to re-open, Ingka Centres is supporting local communities with delivery services at malls in Portugal and Russia, in the latter with free food runs for the at-risk and elderly.