Olivier DAUVERS,
Editor in chief "La Tribune Grande Conso"

Fourth largest operator, Panthéon is the most recent. Two planning authorisations (CDEC) in France over the last 12 months, a centre in England, a major centre in Italy and authorisation for Venice and the project at Saint-André de Cubzac near Bordeaux, elected project of the year. Franck Verschelle, one of the three associates, is in charge of Panthéon’s property. What explains the success of brand centres, what will the next generations of brand centres be like?

Franck VERSCHELLE
Before discovering with you the recipe for success, let it be said that Panthéon is a new player, which, nevertheless has the benefit of relatively longstanding experience (centre developments in Italy and England). Panthéon is also working in France, but more with respect to tourism. We have grouped together to share a different vision of our profession. The recipe that we propose is based on five fundamentals – development, marketing, retail management, marketing and finance.

Development
Development is the basis of any action. It consists in selecting a region and finding local partners (property specialists, regional players). Whenever you are setting up a site, it is important to stick to the specific features of the region, to be in phase with the elected officials in an authority, otherwise noting will get done. Then, the choice of the site itself is crucial – close to major motorways, centres that perform well are at least 30 minutes from the towns (catchment area). The size of the site is also becoming an important criterion, with a minimum of 18000 square metres of sale are and 14 hectares of land. In fact, we are also selling a destination and we attract customers for far a field; the site needs to have landscaping and around 90 shops. If it just has a few shops, the catchment area will be very small and the marketing budget will be limited. A well-performing centre must have a marketing budget of 1 million euros. The last element relates to architecture and tourism, and we have to adapt to the region.

Marketing
It is vital to conclude a structured lease, which enables the shops to be managed and us to help them as much as possible, because we are not in the business to receive rent, but to work together. The choice of brands in a centre is based on two criteria – the customer and the region. Finally, we must carry our (Anglo-Saxon type) asset management constantly and in an inventive manner, by changing the brands, sometimes without their consent.

Site management
A well-managed site requires the presence of specialists in situ. The standard local team comprises a centre manager (with longstanding retail experience), a marketing manager (to develop marketing campaigns) and a retail manager (from the networks, to assist the brands on a day-to-day basis). These people control the price and work on customer service.


Marketing
The site marketing manager controls a marketing budget which is often as much as 1 million euros and must target a multitude of customers, who will come to the centre at a given moment. Without this budget and this objective, we would be subject to seasonal effects, which would distort sales. Bordeaux, with its 2.5 million inhabitants, is a comfortable catchment area situated 90 minutes from our future centre. We expect a lot of people to visit the site in the summer, particularly children. So we will set up a user-friendly centre as a function of this. However, in September, there is likely to be a flow of people to Saint-Émilion… So we have to anticipate these flows throughout the year and take them into account. This one can speak of shopping tourism, because the customers come because are attracted by the brands or they want to do something a bit different.

Throughout this convention, we have seen that the operators have different strategies in Europe. Some, such as McArthurGlen, play on the retail groups, others, such as Freeport, play on the place name. Pantheon, however, favours the destination, rather than brand marketing, which is not, in our opinion, a choice criteria. Each place has its own history, we should not forget this. So the name and the brands are now secondary.

Finance
The rental structure differs, depending on the operator. Rent is indexed on the turnover and should enable this turnover to increase, as a result of teamwork. This equation, applied by many centres will endure over forthcoming years.