Shopping centres are turning into museums
Large shopping centres will become empty soon. Financial crunch makes most shops resided there leave and probably forever.
Over the past 3 months empty rooms in shopping complexes grew 20 %. Decline of customer demand compels trade networks reduce number of their outlets. Shopping centres are ready to lessen lease payment but the tendency, as analysts say, will go on.
Marketing companies leave regions which were dynamically developing earlier. High-class clothes boutiques are being closed as long as shops selling electronics. Companies reconsider their further development and choose temporary shutdown. Particularly, most Moscow companies laid aside further widening up to the second quarter of 2009.
Product retailers are not going to increase number of their outlets. Analysts at press agency INFOLine estimated, profit of most product networks significantly reduced in 2008. Profit growth rate of 18 largest retailers amounted to 37,8% what 5% less than in 2007. Specialists at press agency INFOLine reckon after nonpublic federal and regional networks summarize their work, average income growth rate of retailers will also come down. Retail companies have suffered from financial crunch most of all.
What will face shopping centres in future? "Enormous sales premises (80-100 square meters) can be used for markets or redeployed into office centres otherwise they will turn into museums, says Petr Harisov, lead analyst at Mall Group. But it will take place first of all in Russian regions. Possibility that shopping complexes in Moscow will turn into markets is not so big".
Experts remind, average payback of shopping centres is about 5-7 years. Many of them were built 2-3 years ago. Malls exploitation is very expensive, but if they don?t bring profit, asset management will experience great losses. There is an alternative for them to sell or merge into other networks.
Artyem Krasnov
|
