“According to our “district residents”, I can say that during the period of mass suspension of international brands, which began in February, we closed zero stores. And in larger shopping centers of the district, regional, super-regional formats, up to 15%, in some - up to 30% of the leasable area occupied by the line of major global brands, were closed, ”confirms Elena Solovyeva, director of management organization at Lynks Property Management, in which manages about 1 million square meters. m of space, and the portfolio of shopping centers includes district ones.
To date, the number of companies that have restricted their activities in Russia is about 180. Their portfolio as a whole includes more than 300 brands. At the same time, more than 30 companies have already decided to leave the Russian market for good and are gradually closing stores. These are such market players as Finnish Prisma, Hesburger, Paulig Café&Store, Nokia, American Starbucks and Levi Strauss&Co, French Coty, Ukrainian Ninja Sushi and others.
But the main volume of outgoing categories of goods falls on the fashion segment - it is minimally represented in regional malls.
MEET DAILY DEMAND
“In our shopping center, exactly the same thing is happening as in all other shopping centers: we have closed areas from Western brands - 18% of GLA. On the one hand, this is quite a lot, but if you count by the doors - by the number of tenants - then this is only 14 out of 270 stores, ”says Sofia Merlin, commercial director of the Krasny Kit shopping center, Mytishchi.
The shares of tenant profiles in the basket of district and regional malls are really very different. According to Knight Frank, the clothing, footwear, accessories category, which has suffered the most now, occupies 45% of the area in regional shopping centers, and only 6% in regional ones. On the other hand, such sustainable categories as “Products” and “Beauty and Health” occupy 21% and 20% respectively in the “district” malls, while in larger malls - only 10% and 1%, respectively.
“The fact is that district shopping centers are objects that, unlike their larger counterparts, work for a small coverage area of neighboring quarters and through traffic. They have a more regular visiting structure, because they must meet the daily demand of customers,” explains Elena Solovyova.
And district shopping centers give away most of their space to tenants who meet this daily demand: that is why they have a much lower share of international and federal brands. And stores of daily demand, as all developers understand, are the least susceptible to both seasonal and crisis fluctuations.
“During the pandemic, cinemas were closed first, then entertainment centers and food courts, while essential goods were left. And the share of such goods in regional shopping centers exceeded 60-70%, and these facilities continued to conduct operating activities, if not in full, then in any case to a greater extent than other shopping malls, ”says Solovyova.