Retail One-Stop

Shopping centres in top investor demand

Investors continue to snap up shopping centre assets in Australia with the flurry of investment activity in the retail sector continuing in 2002, according to research by Jones Lang LaSalle.

About $2.7 billion of retail property was traded in 2002 across Australia, down only slightly from the $2.9 billion record achieved in 2001. This does not include the Colonial / Gandel merger or the creation of Queensland Investment Corporation’s $1 billion QIC Shopping Centre Fund which combined add nearly $4 billion to the total. More...

Woolworths sets up $100m NSW distribution centre

Woolworths is to set up a $100 million food distribution centre at Wyong on the Central Coast – creating up to 600 new permanent jobs over the next three years.

It will be the company’s biggest regional distribution centre in NSW – servicing stores from the northern suburbs of Sydney up to Coffs Harbour. More...

Supermarket slip leads to $1.5m payout

British supermarket group Asda Stores will pay 550,000 pounds ($Al,530,000) in compensation, following an incident in one of its supermarkets in which a shopper slipped on a mushroom.

Westfield revises U.S. takeover bid

Westfield America, Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Westfield America Trust has joined Simon Property Group in a revised bid for Taubman Centers Inc. a leading US shopping centre company.

The offer price to acquire all Taubman common shares will be increased from US$18 a share to US$20 a share. If the bid is successful Westfield America would pay US$522 million to jointly acquire the currently outstanding Taubman common shares. This transaction would be accretive to Westfield America Trust’s earnings a unit. More...

Metcash quashes Manila expansion plan

Metcash Trading Ltd has withdrawn from its proposed acquisition of a 65% stake in Suy Sing Commercial Corporation, a Philippines-based grocery distributor.

Since its initial announcement on the issue last October, an intensive due diligence program has been undertaken, and fundamental differences on substantial issues have emerged that remain unresolved. More...

AMP in $32m Qld expansion

AMP Shopping Centre Trust (ART) has begun $32 million worth of extensions to Garden City, Mount Gravatt, Brisbane, in which it has a 50% interest.

The expansion will accommodate a new Coles supermarket, a mini-major store and about 25 specialty stores and kiosks. More...

Their big, fat department store wedding…

Ever noticed that many courting couples make a public declaration they are an “item” by parading their affection while travelling on the shopping centre escalator?

Well, Selfridges department store, Oxford Street, London, followed the romantic implications to the logical conclusion and obtained a wedding licence just in time for Christmas. More...

Presenting Mecca Cola - the unReal Thing

Mecca Cola, a deliberate takeoff of Coke, is generating inquiries from Australia according to its creator, who claims he launched it as “a way of standing up to American hypocrisy”.

After only two months on the shelves, more than two million bottles of Mecca Cola have been sold mainly in France, and its creator, French radio journalist-cum-lawyer Tawfik Mathlouthi, claims he has orders for a further 11 million bottles. He is now building his own manufacturing and bottling plant near Paris. More...

Toothbrush just can’t be brushed aside…

For most Americans, the humble and long-established toothbrush is the most favoured invention of all time, outstripping the car, the personal computer, mobile phone and even the microwave oven in popularity. More...

Gift trade bonanza ahead for SE Qld

Consumer spending in retail gift shops in Brisbane and the southeast regions of Queensland is expected to soar in the next few years, with expectations that sales will rise by $301million to a total of more than $2billion a year by 2011.

Main reasons for the expected upsurge are the impacts of resident population changes, the increases in housing and household income and wealth and the upswing in the number of international and domestic tourists. More...

Ferrero hopes for sweet taste of Internet success

Queensland chocolate lovers will be the first Australians to enjoy the latest innovation from confectionery giant, Ferrero with the new Kinder Internet Surprise to hit Queensland shelves this month ( February).

The first product to introduce a chocolate with toy, Kinder Surprise still offers the original milk chocolate shell with all the goodness of 32% milk, also containing a toy. More...

New IGA Supermarket To Open In Wynnum

Australia's fast growing retail brand, IGA, will launch another new Queensland member to its list of stores - IGA Supermarket Wynnum - in the Bay Terrace Shopping Centre on Sunday, February 2 with a range of great opening specials.

The new store opens after a 12 month, $1 million refurbishment of the former Franklins store on the site and is now the region's most dynamic retail outlet, stocking 10,000 grocery and refrigerated products and covering 1,800 square metres. More...

Up-to-the-minute focus on buying trends

QUALITY scan data from the independent sector is now available to the Australian retail industry through Australian United Retailer’s (AUR) scan data service.

AUR’s scan data system allows AUR to log every sale that takes place in AUR stores, under three different AUR banners, throughout Queensland, Victoria and NSW.

Salvos’ stores upgrade with Retail One

In line with a major revamp of its chain of retail stores, the Salvation Army has implemented Technology One’s industry solution, Retail One, for all its 88 stores located along the East Coast from Canberra to Townsville.

Retail One will provide the Salvation Army with a single, integrated system for purchasing, price management, inventory management, sales analysis, financial management and point of sale (POS). More...

Unevenly spread it may be but – there’s a boom going on says
CHARLIE NELSON*

There is a boom taking place – albeit an unevenly spread one – in the retail sector that marketers would do well to capitalise on.

They should be communicating their product or service’s brand values in a broader sense as well as implementing immediately tangible tactical campaigns.

Close

This bulletin is edited and compiled by retail commentator John Kingsley-Jones. John has worked as an Editor, Chief Sub-Editor and journalist in magazines and newspapers both in Australia and overseas.

In the past 15 years, he has consulted to a range of companies and brands such as Unilever, Mars Confectionery, TipTop, Tooheys, McWilliam's Wines, Goodyear and BMW.

That's it for this issue of the Retail One-Stop. If you have any questions or comments please give us a call on 02 9419 8356 or email us on info@eps.net.au.