The opening of Trinity Leeds brought hordes of consumers to the newest retail offering in one of the UK’s premier shopping locations.

The opening of Trinity Leeds brought hordes of consumers to the newest retail offering in one of the UK’s premier shopping locations.

It is a welcome respite from what has been a general air of gloom around retail, an example of how a bricks location can be rejuvenated and hold its head high despite the onslaught from clicks websites.

A reminder too that city centre shopping is neither dead nor dying with, for example, Apple, Victoria’s Secret, Hollister and Superdry making a real effort to provide new shops with the latest in-store design.

So the transformation of the centre of Leeds really emphasises the significant evolution and shift that we are witnessing in the retail sector. The 100 or so prime locations in the UK continue to get stronger at the expense of the weaker ones.

It’s interesting to note how those retailers that expand overseas view the rest of the world. Burberry was one of the first retailers to talk in terms, not of countries, but of major cities where it wants to have a presence. And witness the recent successful openings of Primark in Berlin and Topshop in Los Angeles.

However, that’s the glamorous bit. We need to return to the UK high street and the retail locations from 101 onwards.

Stores are still disappearing because of both a litany of insolvencies and almost every mature retail chain wanting a smaller and more focused store estate.

Consumers do not need the number of shops that we have at present, and that is not going to reverse in the
future even if we return to good economic times.

Many of the retailers that fall into insolvency are not being ‘saved’ when they are bought from the administrator.

Virtually all of them experience either huge reductions in their store estate or, in my view, have propositions that are so weak that they won’t survive in their present form.

Reducing the size of the store estate is now firmly on retailers’ agenda, but in many cases is still in the early stages of being worked through with property owners.

The solution for what happens to those locations with many boarded up shops cannot be found through the retail industry. There is obviously a part for retailers to play, just as there is for the property owners, but someone, probably the local authority, needs to take charge and make change happen.

It’s not easy for local authorities because they don’t have much money either, but they are the logical independent body that should have the long-term interests of the community at heart.

Each location will have to face different issues so there is not a cookie-cutter solution to the problem.

Local authorities need to seize the initiative and decide on a masterplan for the locality; initiate the change by introducing a big statement such as a new public space with art, the return of a street market, or some form of leisure activity such as an arthouse cinema or gallery, and control the transformation.

  • Peter Williams is a non-executive director of Asos and a former chief executive of Selfridges