This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
AUSTRALIA and New Zealand are becoming fashionable locations for many of the world's leading retailers, according to a new global retail study by CB Richard Ellis.
CBRE’s report How Global is the Business of Retail?, is the first of its kind to analyse the international retail market and maps the footprint of 250 of the world’s top retailers.
CBRE’s regional director of retail Services Joshua Loudoun said of the 250 retailers surveyed, only 25% had a presence in Australia and even fewer retailers – 15% – had put up their shingle in NZ and the presence of US retailers in this region significantly outweighed that of retailers originating from the Europe the Middle East and Africa.
But Loudoun said that is changing with a growing number of European retailers were examining opportunities in this region.
“Looking forward, Australia and NZ are very much of the radar, with a number of big name fashion labels making preliminary investigations over the past few months.
“Typically a global brand entering Australia had only a limited choice of opening a store in the Melbourne or Sydney CBD, with few options after that, making it difficult to justify the investment. However, increases in personal wealth have opened up new markets in Brisbane and more recently Perth,”
“Upmarket fashion label Zara, luxury luggage brand Tumni and global fashion chain H&M are all understood to be examining opportunities in Australia.
“Other global retailers to have recently opened concept stores in Australia include Jimmy Choo, Omega, Coach, Lululemon Athletica, Lacoste and Adidas,” he added.
Loudoun said there were two main barriers for retailers entering the Australian and NZ.
A key obstacle was the alternate seasons and this had been reflected in the CBRE study, which showed that of the 61 countries surveyed, only 10% were in the Southern Hemisphere.
The size of the Australian/NZ market was also often cited as a barrier to entry. But Loudoun said it was not so much market size as Australia ranks 13th in the CBRE study in regard to GDP, but the lack of suitable store locations to provide the critical mass retailers needed to justify their operational costs.
“With a requirement for high profile, large format concept stores, the planned developments of Centrepoint in Sydney and Myer Melbourne will provide the ideal entry point for many of international labels. Many of the regional shopping centres are also now looking at the potential to add on luxury malls, which was seen recently with Chadstone in Melbourne announcing it has secured Louis Vuitton,” he added.
Globally, the CBRE report highlights a number of key trends in the global retail market.
The study ranks the UK as the current global leader in relation to international retailer presence, with 55% of the retailers surveyed having a presence in that market.
However, the UK’s title as the most international retail market in the world is under threat from an unlikely candidate – Spain – which was a close runner-up at 51%.
France and Germany also performed strongly in the global ranking, achieving third and fourth positions respectively. Emerging markets included the United Arab Emirates, China and Russia – countries which all featured in the top 10 list.
Australia ranked 32nd out of the 62 countries surveyed, with NZ coming in at 47th.
Australian Property Journal
