This week we head up to Leeds to visit the Trinity Leeds development. Then it’s a journey to Bradford to appraise how the city’s retail plans are progressing, followed by Middlesbrough and its resilient Psyche store, and then finally on to the retail hotspot of Newcastle

Trinity Leeds has a well-appointed street-scape in the city centre

It’s not as grim up North as some might think. As Retail Week arrives at the end of the M1 in Leeds for the first stop on this week’s road trip, the humming construction site of the city centre’s 1 million sq ft Trinity Leeds development symbolises a burgeoning retail scene. 

Back in 2009, the future looked bleak for Trinity Leeds when it was mothballed at the height of the downturn. But a year later, progress was back on track with a revised plan that actually added new space.

“It was always a hiatus,” says Land Securities retail project director Neil Read. “We saw deals coming through so we were going to continue. We reappraised what we were doing and saw there was scope to add space. We’ve added a Conran restaurant there – the first outside London.”

Work resumed on the construction site just over a year ago. It is already beginning to take shape, with work having begun on what will be the shopping centre’s signature dome roof in readiness for its spring 2013 opening.

Trinity Leeds is an open street-scape arcade slap bang in the centre of the city. The scheme is positioned on a main thoroughfare close to the train station and the financial district. It connects to the existing main shopping streets, Albion Street, Briggate and The Headrow, three of the busiest 15 streets in the country.

The perfect scheme

The scheme will bring 120 retail outlets to the city, of which 60% are let. Although Read admits there is some churn with retailers moving from their current city centre location into the scheme – notably Next and Topshop, which want to upgrade to flagship stores – half of the let units are for retailers’ second stores in the city, or for brands that are new to the city such as Cult, Mango and Hollister.

The development has a smattering of restaurants, including Carluccio’s, Yo! Sushi and Giraffe, as well as an Everyman cinema – the first outside London – all which the developer says will increase dwell time and make Trinity Leeds a retail destination.

Few shopping centres have been given the go ahead for development amid the recession. So why was Land Securities confident enough to continue amid the economic gloom? “We set a leasing target to hit and we hit it,” says Read. “Before the crash we had a ‘build it and the retailers will come’ attitude, but now we wait for the retailers and they wanted to be here.” He says Leeds has the third largest population of any UK city and that “good, available retail space is hard to come by here”.

Nor were there any worries about the health of the Leeds retail market. “It’s a very resilient economy,” explains Read. “It’s a strong financial centre and not as exposed in terms of public sector employment. There’s a big private sector here.” He is confident about the prospects for footfall and consumer spend. This is a dynamic city with a thriving night life, a large number of affluent shoppers and a place where 100,000 people travel through the train station each day. Land Securities anticipates that the development will propel the city up the retail destination hierarchy . It was number seven in CACI’s list of retail centres and based on expenditure, Land Securities claim when Trinity is complete it will jump to number four.

Guy Critchlow chief operating officer at Leeds-based young fashion retailer Republic, agrees: “It’s such a vibrant city and has a great shopping offer. It feels like there’s a wave of investment which is going to take Leeds into the next phase.” Yorkshire has a strong retail heritage – Asda’s head office is in Leeds, as is Poundstretcher’s – even Marks & Spencer began life here. Meanwhile Morrisons’ head office is in nearby Bradford and DFS is down the road in Doncaster. Republic, though, is Yorkshire’s flagship fashion retailer. 

Set up by chief executive Tim Whitworth in 1984, Critchlow says the retailer’s Yorkshire roots have in fact been instrumental in its growth to the 116-store brand it is today. “We tap into Leeds’ DNA, which is fun and youthful. It’s a 24-hour city with a good fashion edge. The people love clubbing and festivals. Men in this region love their clothes and love their brands. It’s not by accident that Republic has developed this multi-brand offer.”

Critchlow, who only moved to Republic in February from his London-based role as managing director of Kookai, believes the accessibility of its Leeds head office location has helped recruit those with the requisite talent for fashion retail. Its workforce commutes from as far away as the Northwest to the Midlands. Critchlow believes the wide catchment brings a certain diversity and energy to the company.

The retailer, which brought in former Asda chairman and chief executive Andy Bond as chairman this year following its sale to private equity group TPG last year, is still growing. “We’ve grown our team to sustain our growth and we’re growing at a significant pace,” says Critchlow.

Republic is setting its expansion sights further afield. The fashion chain is starting to push its website offer internationally to “test the water” to see if there is the potential to open physical stores overseas. “That’s what led me to this business, there’s still oodles of opportunity in the core domestic market and internationally. This good old Leeds business, which started off in Wetherby, could be flag-bearing into international markets,” says Critchlow. But there is one thing the Republic team has yet to achieve: a store in the centre of Leeds. “We’re in the White Rose, but we still want to be in the centre. It’s a vibrant opportunity. It’s on our radar and we will be there,” he says.

Like Land Securities, Critchlow believes the city’s retail market has held up during the tough times and cites its big financial centre as a reason. “Leeds has one of the biggest financial centres outside London. First Direct is here, the big legal and financial companies have opened significant offices here. It’s fared well.”

The Bradford tale

While Leeds appears to be thriving, it’s a different story if you get in the car and drive 15-minutes west to another major city in West Yorkshire; Bradford. Whereas Trinity Leeds is springing quickly to life, the Westfield Bradford site is deathly quiet. The scheme was mothballed in April 2010, after several years in which no construction had taken place. The site, though replaced by a temporary park last year, was scrawled with graffiti from locals reading ‘Wastefield’. It makes for a depressing retail picture.

When the shopping centre development giant announced it was to open in the region, both shoppers and retailers alike celebrated the much needed boost to Bradford’s retail offer. With Kirkgate – the main shopping street that houses a shopping centre of the same name – looking dated, the opening of the planned 550,000 sq ft mega-mall could allow Bradford to compete with neighbouring shopping hotspot Leeds.

Demolition work began with gusto in 2004 to plough ahead for the 2007 planned opening, with stores such as Bhs and JD Sports closing down as part of the process. But anchor tenants had failed to sign up for the scheme, and the lack of letting activity forced Bhs – Bradford’s only department store – to cancel its planned store, leaving it without a presence in the city.

Broadway, a once busy shopping street, is now the home of an empty parade of shops.

Compared with Leeds, Bradford has suffered from a lack of development.

Compared with Leeds, Bradford has suffered from a lack of development.

A few stores remain open on the streets surrounding the site, including HMV and Game, but footfall is low. “It’s like a ghost town,” comments one passerby. Retail blogger and Bradford resident Steve Dresser says: “It’s a disaster. Before it was bulldozed it was busy. If you look at Leeds, there’s clearly investment around, but Bradford city centre looks like a building site.”

There may be some good news on the horizon as Westfield submitted new plans for a smaller centre in June which it described as “more market-relevant and desirable”. The developer says it would start from scratch in signing retailers up for the scheme. If the revised scheme does go ahead, lettings should be bolstered by the news that Marks & Spencer, which had taken a store in the original plans, will take a 60,000 sq ft anchor in the revised scheme.

But Bradford’s retailing woes do not begin and end with Westfield. The city centre is peppered with To Let signs and Dresser says it has a 35% vacancy rate. “There’s too much competition from Leeds. I shop at the White Rose [in Leeds]. There’s nothing worth coming into Bradford for. It could do with some investment.”

PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Randal Casson thinks investment in Leeds is a safer bet for developers. “Leeds is a bigger centre and has not just footfall but locals’ ability to spend. Bradford doesn’t feel as core a hub as Leeds.”

Kirkgate, Bradford’s shopping centre, is crying out for investment if it is to compete according to local retailers. Phil Cooke, the store manager of 12-store fashion chain Infinities – which has stores across Yorkshire, the Northwest and Midlands – says the current development looks shabby and warns if Westfield is to open (only a five-minute walk away), Kirkgate and its surrounding streets will not be able to compete. “When it does open it will kill Kirkgate. It needs investing in. We’re looking to get a bigger location and we’d look at moving in, or close to, Westfield. There are lots of shops [in this end of town] that aren’t open and it’ll get worse.”

Newcastle hotspot

It’s time to escape the gloom of Bradford for another altogether brighter retail scene in the retail hotspot of Newcastle. The city is again proof that retail development can have a positive impact on all shopping areas in a city. The Metrocentre has long been the retail staple of Tyneside, but it is the revamped Newcastle city centre Eldon Square development that is having its moment in the sun right now.

Capital Shopping Centres, which owns both Eldon Square and Metrocentre, invested £170m in the city centre scheme that went towards a series of projects including two restaurants, a state-of-the art bus station and two new malls. St Andrew’s Way was the last mall to open in spring 2010 and has transformed a run-down part of the centre into a hub for fashion stores.

Retail blogger and Tyneside local Graham Soult says Eldon Square was finding it hard to compete with the Metrocentre, especially in fashion. “It’s rejuvenated retail in fashion. Eldon Square used to be the place to go for practical buys, not fashion.”

Anchored by a four-storey Debenhams, itself a new retailer to Newcastle, the development has encouraged a raft of international retailers to debut in the city including Hollister and Apple. Opening hours were extended at the complex following the revamp. To support retail in the area local business development agency Newcastle NE1 has invested £500,000 in promoting free evening parking over the summer.

Capital Shopping Centres asset management director Martin Breedon says footfall has improved since the revamp. “There’s not a finite amount of spend and it depends on your offer and how you engage customers,” he explains. “This has clearly engaged them.”

And Breedon says as well as the jump in footfall at Eldon Square since its revamp, the Metrocentre has seen an uplift, too. He says: “They trade alongside each other. They both have different catchment areas with Metrocentre pulling a lot of visitors from further afield such as Carlisle to Yorkshire.”

With the opening of the revamped Eldon Square came the worry of churn, especially when anchor store Next closed its Northumberland Street store, situated just outside the shopping centre, to move into the St Andrew’s way in May according to Soult.

However, the revamped centre has driven other retailers to invest. Breedon says the existing department stores Fenwick and John Lewis have undergone refurbishment since Debenhams opened on St Andrew’s Way, while Next’s exit has signalled the go-ahead for Bhs to move into the space, with Primark also expanding into the former Bhs store. Soult says: “It’s great for Newcastle. Northumberland Street has two new major flagships and Eldon Square has been rejuvenated.

It’s a really interesting time for the city centre.”

Despite projections that the North will be hardest hit by the downturn, developers and retailers alike continue to invest in making the region’s retail destinations world-class and. As Eldon Square testifies, if you build it, they will come.

An independent in Middlesbrough

Despite Middlesbrough’s status as the least resilient place to public sector cuts in the country, independent department store Psyche insists it has proved fairly immune to the downturn.

The retailer has invested in a shop refit after the overhaul of its website in April. Psyche marketing manager Paolo Capaldi says: “It may be seen as a risky move, but we haven’t seen a decline in sales.”

The 35,000 sq ft store, a beacon to footballers’ wives across the Northeast, has an in-house salon offering spray tans and Botox injections, which has helped the retailer maintain its sales momentum, but owner Steve Cochrane has plans for the store. He has secured planning permission to build a £5m extension (pictured), which will house a 39-room boutique hotel and a roof-top restaurant. Cochrane hopes to start construction in 2012 or 2013.

Psyche, Middlesbrough

Psyche, Middlesbrough

Greggs - Northeast institution

No trip to the Northeast would be complete without a trip to famed bakery chain Greggs. The Newcastle-based company is not short of outlets in the Northeast, with 145 stores across the area.

And with its headquarters, manufacturing and supply bases based there, Greggs is one of the biggest private sector employers in the region.

“We’ve never lost our roots. We may be nationwide but it’s a very big part of our heritage,” says chief executive Ken McMeikan, former Sainsbury’s retail director.

Greggs

Greggs

McMeikan admits that its Northeast heartland has been impacted over the past year with job uncertainty rife, along with spending being squeezed by food price inflation and fuel costs. Its Northeast competitor Woodheads, which had 30 shops, fell into administration in March and shop vacancy rates across the region run at 19%, 5% higher than the national average.

McMeikan says: “There’s less frequency of customers on the high street so of course we’ve seen less footfall. We’re quite fortunate as we’re well loved in the Northeast and we’re performing better than we would have expected this time three years ago.”

Greggs is counteracting falling footfall on the high street by opening in travel destinations, with guaranteed footfall. It has just opened in Newcastle railway station and has an outlet in the city’s airport. It has also moved into industrial estates to benefit from lunchtime trade from workers.

It has also focused on making its stores more of a social destination by adding seating areas into stores, particularly those in the Northeast.

McMeikan explains: “People here love shopping. They love the social side of it; meeting up with family or friends. And that hasn’t changed.”