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Beyond retail: the evolving role of space and place, 29th November, Manchester

Date: 29th November, 5-9pm
Registration: 5pm. we will start presentations at 5.25pm prompt to ensure we stick to timings.
Venue: Savills, 12 Booth Street Manchester, M2 4AW
Finish: We should wrap up around 7.15 to allow those who need to catch trains plenty of time.
Drinks: Please join us for networking, drinks and refreshments after the event at the Anthologist Bar on St Peter’s Square if you have time.
Self-Guided Study Tour: Download Manchester Desinations

Agenda

  • 5.25 – Welcome and Introduction – Jonathan Reynolds, Deputy Dean & Director of Graduate Studies – Academic Director, Oxford Institute of Retail Management, Saïd Business School
  • 5.30 – Understanding the evolution of town & city centres – contemporary evidence – Cathy Parker, Professor, Manchester Metropolitan University
  • 6.00 – CVA Impact analysis – CVA stories have filled the retail press this year, but what has actually happened to the stores affected? – Sam Arrowsmith – Associate Director, Retail & Leisure Research, Savills
  • 6.25 – Evolution of the leisure experience – A look at the change in space, consumer needs, technological impacts and property implications – Tom Whittington – Director, Retail & Leisure Research, Savills
  • 6.50 – SLA Student Awards – We will be presenting out award winning students with their awards. We had lots of entries this year so please join us in congratulating our winners.

Session Abstracts

Understanding the evolution of town & city centre – contemporary evidence

Cathy Parker, Professor, Manchester Metropolitan University

Cathy will be talking about the evolution of town and city centres, based on comprehensive analysis of footfall data, obtained from over 150 UK locations.

This dataset give us a unique insight into how different towns and cities are used by their catchments and offers some challenges to the current retail hierarchy.

CVA & Administration Impact Analysis

Sam Arrowsmith – Associate Director, Retail & Leisure Research, Savills

2018 has been the year of the ‘Company Voluntary Arrangement’ (CVA), the insolvency procedure that allows a company with debt problems to reach a voluntary agreement with its business creditors regarding repayment of all, or part of its corporate debts over an agreed period of time. But are retail operators using the process as a tool to reduce costs and rationalise portfolio’s rather than as a last resort to save a struggling business?

Coupled with a handful of high profile failures in the retail and leisure market the rhetoric in the press has certainly been one of doom and gloom. The evidence however suggests the situation is not as bad as we are led to believe and what we are in fact seeing is the continuation of a cyclical process whereby retailers that fail to adapt to market pressures falter but those that do go on and continue to flourish.

This presentation will look at the CVA and administrations that have taken place across the whole of the UK giving insight on the retailers involved, the types of scheme they are on and where in the UK the impact has been felt the most.

Evolution of the leisure experience – A look at the change in space, consumer needs, technological impacts and property implications

Tom Whittington – Director, Retail & Leisure Research, Savills

Amid changing customer behaviour, the role of leisure and in particular food and beverage (F&B) in the retail environment has evolved significantly in recent years. The inflow of contradictory news on the performance
and the possible future of the sector has created a rather confusing picture.

Tom’s presentation examines the growth story and explores the broad spectrum of issues concerning the leisure market, from the change in consumers’ behaviour, impact of technology to the implications for the property industry.

Speaker Biographies

Cathy Parker, Professor, Manchester Metropolitan University

Cathy Parker is a Professor of Retail and Marketing Enterprise at Manchester Metropolitan University and Co-Chair of the Institute of Place Management, the professional body for all those involved in making better places. Cathy is also Editor-in-Chief of the international, peer-reviewed Journal of Place Management and Development, and is Adjunct Professor at Institute for Regional Development, University of Tasmania and Visiting Professor, Higher School of Economics, Russia. Cathy Parker is regarded as an expert and leader in the place management sector, and is frequently asked to commentate on high street, place and retail related topics. Cathy has recently featured on BBC breakfast, Sunday politics, BBC radio 5 live and ITV

Sam Arrowsmith – Associate Director, Retail & Leisure Research, Savills

Samuel Arrowsmith is an Associate Director of Retail & Leisure Research at Savills. Previously a graduate of the University of Leeds where he completed his Geography degree and an MSc in GIS for Business Consultancy, Sam started his career at G-Map Consulting before his move to Savills in 2012. Specialising in predictive modelling solutions his expertise includes store location strategies, catchment analysis, trade battlegrounds, scheme turnover potential, shopping patterns, scheme/centre performance, retail provision statistics, competitor analysis and GIS. His interpretation and prediction of consumer behaviour enables him to consult on commercial investment and sales decisions, scheme valuation

Tom Whittington – Director, Retail & Leisure Research, Savills

Tom Whittington is Director of Retail & Leisure Research at Savills, where he has worked since 2001. During that time he has developed site location analysis across a number of property sectors, but gravitated towards retail and leisure sector due to the benefits associated with needing to research the restaurant market first hand. Tom now splits his time between advising brands on their location strategies, landlords on their investment strategies and mixed use developers on the quantum and typology of retail required to support their schemes. In 2018, Savills were commissioned by REVO to undertake a white paper review of the UK leisure market, which forms the basis of his presentation today.


To book your place, please email info@thesla.org