St David’s launches ‘Made in Wales’ campaign

Landsec, joint owners of St David’s shopping centre in Cardiff, has launched a new initiative ‘Made in Wales’ aimed at supporting local retail businesses and entrepreneurs.

The campaign has been designed to provide a local retail brand with a pop-up retail space for six months from October, including the Christmas period, within the St David’s shopping centre to “grow its audience” within the region.

Entries are open until Monday, August 10, with St David’s looking for applicants who have fewer than 20 shops nationally and have had no insolvency event within the past 2 years, and that can keep the shop open with “sufficient stock” from October 1 until March 31, 2021. Application forms can be downloaded via the St David’s website.

The winning brand will be announced in September and will be able to transform the pop-up space into a “new and exciting” retail offering, while also receiving PR and marketing support from the shopping centre.

Speaking on behalf of the St David’s Partnership, Russell Loveland, senior portfolio director for Landsec, said in a statement: “We wanted to find a way to support local businesses and the ‘Made in Wales’ initiative provides brands with a chance to build and grow. The ‘Made in Wales’ competition is a chance for us to work with the local community and we look forward to seeing entries from many the exciting retail brands.”

Heinz Kloihofer, temporary lettings, and commercial partnerships manager at Landsec, added: “We have seen a very strong entrepreneurial spirit regionally and the ‘Made in Wales’ competition will not only provide the physical space but also the other important communication support; such as marketing, to give it the chance to succeed. We are very excited to see what entrants we receive in the coming weeks.”

The ‘Made in Wales’ initiative is being judged by a panel from Landsec, joint owners of St David’s, and is also being rolled out in two other key regional UK destinations within their portfolio, Bluewater, Kent and Trinity shopping centre, Leeds.

The St David’s shopping centre features more than over 1.4 million square foot of retail and leisure space and over 180 stores, including Marks and Spencer, Primark, River Island, Hugo Boss, Vivienne Westwood and Jo Malone.

Image: courtesy of Landsec