It may have been the usual suspects who were most prominent, but this year’s BCSC was a much more positive affair

The weather in Manchester may have been dreadful but the mood was a lot more positive at this year British Council of Shopping Centres. That wasn’t too hard to be honest after a couple of years when the mood at the annual retail property gathering was pretty dire, but there was no doubt that the landlords and agents were back to being their positive selves and deals were being done. There was even the first example I can recall of a deal been done ‘live’ in front of an audience when Topshop signed up for Newbury’s Parkway development on the Jones Lang stand.

The retailer exhibitors were the usual suspects of the supermarkets - Tesco, JS, Morrisons, Waitrose and the Co-op all had stands - and value retailers, namely Poundland, Store 21 and Wilkinson. That’s not surprising because both groups of retailers are in a competitive market for space and all were working really hard to make sure they didn’t miss out on sites to their rivals.

But more interesting specialist brands were there too, including Theo Paphitis’s new lingerie business - the name of which is going to be unveiled later today - Clas Ohlson and Supergroup, whose chief executive Julian Dunkerton was once again the most popular man in town, I caught up with Julian while he smoked a roll-up outside the GMex, and he explained how a Cult or Superdry store transforms the shopper profile of a centre, which I imagine helps him get the incredible deals landlords offer to persuade him to open a store.

That means his stores are starting to open in increasingly unlikely places - Woking, where the council has bought the shopping centre in a bid to revive the town’s fortunes, being one - but while they continue to draw in shoppers with their outstanding shop-fits and ubiquitous hoodies, property owners will no doubt continue to throw money at them.

That won’t be the case for everyone though and sensible retailers were there at BCSC doing deals now, knowing that the fantastic terms they’ve been able to secure won’t be on the table much longer, not for the best centres anyway. While secondary centres are going to continue to struggle, there’s no doubt that prime centres are back in business.

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