Hartwell said that B&Q and other retailers are becoming increasingly frustrated with their landlords, adding that many are “unrealistic and out of touch” in the present market conditions.
He expressed disappointment at the level of resistance that he and other retailers face from landlords in securing more favourable lease terms, such as nil uplifts on rentals, which he says will cause further big-name administrations before the end of the year.
“We are asking landlords to wake up,” he said. “The market is worse than we’ve seen for 15 to 20 years, therefore now is the time to compromise a bit and try to help retailers with their cash flow. At the moment, it’s a slow and painful process.”
According to Hartwell, landlords are too quick to resort to using arbitrators to settle disputes over rent reviews and are damaging the retail industry by not being more flexible. “Landlords go to arbitrators because they’re not being realistic,” he said.
“They’re not facing up to the fact that market conditions are really bad at the moment. When you’ve got falling like-for-likes, rents should be going down.”
Hartwell hit out following the successful negotiation of a nil uplift rent review on a store in Coventry in July, which the retailer had to argue at arbitration. B&Q had to go through arbitration on half of the 17 successful nil uplift deals it has secured in the past 18 months.
B&Q has about 300 stores in the UK and is seeking to secure further nil uplifts on other sites in the portfolio.
The DIY retailer is part of the group of rebel retailers that came out in protest against landlords’ lack of flexibility in granting their tenants monthly rents last month.
According to Hartwell, the fact that the retailer has to pay quarterly rentals in advance on more than 95 per cent of its stores costs£1.5 million pounds a year out of its overall rental bill of£300 million pounds.
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