Outlet centres in Poland gain customers during the crisis

2010-02-15



Outlet shopping centres, offering products for discount prices, have gained popularity during the recession. The number of clients grew by 10% and sales revenues increased by 20% in 2009 in the Fashion House centres in Gdansk, Piaseczno and Sosnowiec, according to Katarzyna Czapran, a marketing manager of Fashion House outlet malls, quoted by Rzeczpospolita. Also, despite the recession, each centre gained over a dozen new tenants in 2009.
In turn, Neinver, the Spanish development firm that manages Factory outlet centres in Poznan, Warsaw and Wroclaw, was reporting a rise of up to 30% in number of customers month on month in its malls in 2009. The highest increases in growth were reported in such segments as footwear, sports equipment and children's products.
The Polish market of the outlet shopping centres is still far from the saturation point in comparison to such markets as Italy, Germany or the USA. By the end of 2009, there were six such shopping malls of a total area of 85,000 m² in Poland. Until 2012, however, Factory plans to construct two outlet malls of an area of 32,000 m² and some of the existing complexes will be enlarged by 3,000 m². Among the main tenants in such shopping galleries are the clothing retailers with 273 stores, sport equipment stores and footwear outlets with 54 and 50 establishments, respectively. Still, there is a small number of the retailers from such segments as: health, cosmetics, jewellery and accessories as well as services.