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McInnes threatens landlords with store closures – The West Australian

Posted by MattE on 26 Jul 2011 at 11:00 am | Tagged as: Business

The challenge has been laid down to shopping centres, and not a moment too soon.

Premier Retail boss Mark McInnes has dangled the threat of widespread store closures over shopping centre landlords in a bid to extract a better deal on rents as his group of fashion businesses joins the throng of retail rivals warning of “challenging” conditions.

Mr McInnes issued the challenge to shopping centre owners yesterday during his first trading update since his appointment as chief executive of Premier Investments’ collection of retail businesses – which include Just Jeans, Dotti and Portmans – in March.

McInnes threatens landlords with store closures – The West Australian.

The strict profit-sharing rent strategy and the ability of the centre management to ride over stores is a bitter pill to swallow, not only for large chains, but also small franchise owners.

It would be a good thing to see more independent stores in centres to break out of the mould that sees shopping centres around the country with predominantly the same stores as tenants.

Shoppers are increasingly seeking new and unique products that are not being delivered by the chains. Perhaps with the increased affordability, this is why increasing numbers of people are shopping offshore via the internet.