Retailers committed to expansion across CEE region

There is still huge retail potential across Central and Eastern Europe despite the global downturn, according to a raft of speakers at this year’s ICSC Czech Republic and Slovak Retail Real Estate Conference - the first joint conference held by the two ICSC national committees.

Dusan Mrozek, Retail Director of Marks and Spencers, Czech Republic and Markus Pinggera, Austria Expansion Manager of shoe retailer Deichmann who both spoke at the conference, confirmed they are actively expanding.

Markus Pinggera said: 'Our strategy is to be ahead of our competitors. We went into Croatia four years ago, we entered Spain this year and sales figures are good. We are also in Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Slovenia in this region. Dusan Mrozek agreed: 'The room for Marks and Spencers’ expansion is immense. We want to open 15-20 shops every year for the next three years.'

Whilst the development pipeline has been drastically reduced and individual countries economic outlooks cannot be ignored, the need for refurbishment and professional shopping centre management is now a priority for the region’s developers.

Walter Wolfler, head of Development East at Immofinanz, Austria, said: 'International retailers are gaining market share here and retail concepts from the United States and across Europe are still keen to enter the region. To accommodate them, when refurbishing shopping centres we are creating larger retail unit areas to meet their requirements. It’s not always about big centres gaining market share over the smaller centres, either, it’s about the clarity of concept. A shopping centre can be small and successful provided the catchment area is understood.'

Unibail Rodamco is also rolling out a programme of redesigning, retenanting and remarketing across many of its shopping centres. Arnaud Burlin, Unibail Rodamco’s Managing Director in Central Europe, said: 'We are creating fresh interest and remarketing to spread the word. We need to keep investing in our assets - installing better signage, better visibility, improving their modernity. A company must invest in challenging times and we have a EUR 5.7 bn investment programme.'

However, Pavel Klimes, chief operating officer at Euro Mall Centre Management in the Czech Republic, urged caution. 'Correct categorisation of shopping centres is essential now and unless a developer has a clear strategy, and a clear view of the proposed development, they will fail. Proper investment in marketing is essential - in the past, many developers overlooked marketing local, smaller projects in favour of investing in big marketing campaigns for the larger centres. Such smaller centres suffered as a result. Retailers must play their part and support the marketing financially.'

More than 100 delegates, including developers, retailers, investors and marketing experts, attended the Czech Republic/Slovak Retail Real conference, held this year in Bratislava.