Capital and Regional: Shopping centre owner says footfall on the rise thanks to demand for bargain goods

The Mall Wood Green owner Capital and Regional has reported a slight uptick in footfall across its shopping centres driven by a rise in customers shopping at discount stores. 

This morning, the property real estate investment trust (REIT) said in the year to last December the number of people shopping across its estate rose 1.5 per cent to 44.5m visits, representing 86.7 per cent of the equivalent period pre-pandemic. 

Lawrence Hutchings, chief executive, said he noticed consumers are “increasingly focused on value for money as well as prioritising spend on non-discretionary items”. 

“Our value-based retailers are responding by expanding their store footprints into the types of well-managed, high footfall centres offering affordable space in urban locations, that make up our portfolio,” 

“This trend is evidenced by the speed at which our team was able to rapidly re-lease all three of our Wilko units to B&M,” he added. 

 The London-listed firm, which also owns The Exchange in Ilford said occupancy rates reduced by around just over one per cent and now the figure now sits at 93.5 per cent. The “marginal decline” resulted from the collapse of retailer Wilko.

During the year Capital and Regional also bought The Gyle Shopping Centre in Edinburgh for a total of £40m.

Lawrence Hutchings, chief executive, said: “Our ongoing focus on delivering our proven community centre strategy and increasing our weighting to non-discretionary and needs-based retail and services categories has helped us deliver another positive year of progress. 

“The acquisition of Gyle in Edinburgh also represented an important milestone in our goal of returning to growth and we are particularly encouraged by the fact that we have already created value in the centre through our leasing programme.”

The firm said adjusted profit for the year is expected to be approximately £12.7m, up by around £2m on the December 2022 figure. 

The group said it had expected to publish its full-year figures in early March, but the release will now be delayed as its new auditor, Mazars, has requested additional time to complete its procedures in its first year as auditor.