Lockdown’s legacy of numerous workers leaving the corporate world to do something they love has been a bit of a filip for the retail sector, says Creative Retail director Scott Robinson.
He says this trend did not just help the retail sector bounce back with a vengeance but led to many of our high streets becoming healthier, happier places.
“There’s been a real surge in the independent market and that’s partly owing to the fact that people have decided to pursue their dreams,” says Robertson. “There were a lot of people who were in a nice comfortable job, [then] Covid happened and they were either made redundant or just wanted to have a change of lifestyle and they decided to open that little bottle bar they’d been dreaming of.”
Creative Retail is a Birmingham-based retail specialist which trades largely in the West Midlands but has an increasingly national presence. It has transacted 164,829 sq ft of space this year, putting it fifth in EG’s on-demand retail rankings for the whole of the UK.
Robertson believes this boom in the independent sector leaves our streets, particularly those in suburban areas, with a much more appealing range of occupiers.
“You have areas where there are two or three nail bars, a couple of Turkish barbers and mobile phone stores and it’s a really stale environment,” he says. “But we’ve been working on an asset in a Birmingham suburb that has been transformed. It’s gone from having the type of line-up that I’ve just described to having a nice boutique gym, three or four independent restaurants, all of which complement each other. It certainly has improved the tenant mix.”
This boom is not restricted to independents in the suburbs. Birmingham city centre, which received huge exposure during the Commonwealth Games, has seen a traditionally A2 section of New Street transformed, says Robertson.
“We’ve agreed five F&B deals within 50 metres of the high street which includes Tortilla, Yakinori, GDK and Extrawurst, and we’ve got another deal in the pipeline,” he says. “It’s almost created a new destination.”
Retail lettings and occupational sales (sq ft) 2022
|
Agent |
Space transacted (sq ft) |
|
Savills (UK |
969,779 |
|
Cushman & Wakefield |
445,859 |
|
JLL |
386,556 |
|
CBRE |
202,261 |
|
Creative Retail Property |
164,829 |
|
FHP Property Consultants |
138,266 |
|
Avison Young |
122,240 |
|
Flude Property Consultants |
93,445 |
|
Carter Jonas |
77,341 |
|
Siddall Jones |
67,823 |
Source: EG Radius On-Demand Rankings (01/01/22-12/09/22). View more >>
Robertson is under no illusion about the difficulties retailers will shortly face, but he believes Covid has already enforced a kind of hyper-Darwinism.
“When you look at the casualties of the pandemic, many were retailers that hadn’t evolved and they were already facing strong competition from online platforms. Look at Arcadia and BrightHouse, for instance. These kinds of retailers were in trouble prior to Covid and I expect more will end up folding. But prudent, well-managed businesses that put some funds away hopefully will be able to survive and flourish once things have stabilised.”
Robertson believes politicians, both local and national, can help. He is encouraged by Labour proposals over business rates, but believes there needs to be more joined-up thinking between landlords, institutions and local authorities.
“It really does need interjection and collaboration with local authorities, and on a national government level,” he says. “Stockton-on-Tees is a perfect example where the council purchased the town centre shopping centre to repurpose, restore and reconfigure the heart of the town and we’ve got similar, albeit smaller, examples of that with assets we’re working on for clients.”
Quite how much the politicians can and will do remains to be seen, but for the time being we have a thriving independent sector worth saving.
Birmingham retail a glance
- Average achieved retail rent: £22.30 per sq ft
- Retail take-up: 266,070 sq ft
- Average retail yield: 6.9%
- A total of 124 applications for 165,829 sq ft of new retail space have been submitted so far this year, with permission granted for 117 schemes delivering 168,369 sq ft of space
- Just 125,141 sq ft of new retail space is set to be delivered in Birmingham in 2022, with new-build developments representing just 8% of that space. The majority of projects are change of use (44%) and refurbishments (34%)
All figures have been sourced from EG Radius and are for the period 1 January 2022 to 1 September 2022, unless stated otherwise
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To send feedback, e-mail jim.larkin@eg.co.uk
