March 2019

Inditex Group’s net sales rose by 3% in FY18 (1 February 2018 – 31 January 2019) to an all-time high of €26.14 billion, underpinned by growth in all of the Group’s geographic regions. Sales in local currencies grew 7%.

NewRiver has announced the opening of a new Primark store at Priory Meadow Shopping Centre, Hastings. Primark, a leading international retailer and NewRiver’s sixth-largest tenant by rental income, occupies a unit with a 40,000 sq ft gross internal area and joins a strong retailer line-up at the centre that includes H&M, a recently-enlarged JD Sports, Poundland, Boots and Superdrug.

Oldrids & Downtown’s plans for a £125m designer outlet centre in Grantham have been approved by South Kesteven District Council.

Shelley Sandzer, the leading specialist UK leisure property agency, has acted on behalf of the brand in a deal which will see Neapolitan sourdough pizza brand, Franco Manca, secure its next London location at 29/31 Greenwich Church Street, due to open in April.

CBRE arranged leases of two new shops to Spanish jewellery brand TOUS. Its new locations are at Arkády Pankrác in Prague and Olympia in Pilsen. These two shops are the 11th and 12th outlets of this successful company in Czechia which came here three years ago. During the cooperation, CBRE helped open as much as half of the brand’s shops in the country. The expansion documents how successful TOUS is on the Czech market.

British Land announces that John Gildersleeve will retire as a non-executive director and step down as Chairman of the Company at the conclusion of this year’s AGM on 19 July 2019. John joined the Board as a non-executive director in 2008 and has served as Chairman since January 2013.

Food courts are taking over German shopping centres. Having originated in the US and the UK, the trend has now arrived in Germany. A comprehensive range of restaurants and cafés is seen as an antidote to booming online retail in sectors such as clothing, shoes and electronic goods.

IMMOFINANZ recorded strong growth in the number of visitors to its retail properties in 2018: More than 142 million customers visited the STOP SHOP retail parks and VIVO! shopping centers with over 800,000 sqm of rentable space. That represents an increase of roughly 20 million visitors, or 16.7%, over the previous year. On a like-for-like basis, i.e. after an adjustment for acquisitions, sales and completions, the number of visitors rose by 4.8% to approximately 128 million. The retailers operating in the IMMOFINANZ retail parks and shopping centers generated a year-on-year increase of nearly 5.0% in their gross sales revenues.

Primark has launched its first ever range of jeans made from 100% sustainable cotton. Produced in three different washes (indigo, black and light blue), the women’s skinny jeans will be sold in stores across all markets, at a cost of £13/€17. Primark’s customers are looking for amazing fashion at an affordable price, and this range is no different.

In June, Axel Arigato will open at a new address in a Hufvudstaden property in Bibliotekstan, Stockholm. Located at Biblioteksgatan 7, the store will have 130 square metres of retail space.

redos Group, one of Germany’s leading real estate specialists for the retail sector, acquired a total of 18 new properties last year for its two restricted alternative investment funds offered in partnership with Union Investment, the Redos Einzelhandel Deutschland fund and the Redos Einzelhandel Deutschland II fund. With these additions to the fund portfolios, total invested assets rose to approx. EUR 1.3 billion, a year-over-year increase of some 37 per cent.

Echo Investment’s Supervisory Board appointed Małgorzata Turek as Member of the Management Board. She will be responsible for investment, divestment and planning department.

Hamburg-based redos Group, one of Germany’s leading retail property specialists, has announced three major new additions to its team: Jan Steinhauer (43) as Technical Head, Dr. Till Dunemann (38) as Director and Project Head – Rhein-Ruhr Zentrum, and Mathis K. Freundl (32) as Finance Manager.

The organic dairy producer, Yeo Valley, is opening its first London café this May in Queensway.