Westfield launches competition to find sustainable retailers

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield has expanded its retail competition ‘Westfield Grand Prix’ to the UK, France, Spain, Germany and Austria focusing on sustainable retail concepts and businesses.

The competition first founded in 2007 in France, aims to help entrepreneurs open their first stores to test their concepts and forms part of Westfield’s broader support for small and local businesses to bring new concepts to consumers.

The initiative is open to sustainable concepts and start-ups across retail, leisure, dining, entertainment, health and wellbeing, and services, whose solutions “facilitate more responsible consumption and sustainable living”.

Anne-Sophie Sancerre, chief customer and retail officer, said in a statement: “The new edition of the Westfield Grand Prix is a key initiative in our ambition to support the development of the future of sustainable retail. We want to create a platform to highlight sustainable concepts, an ambition we share with our customers – 80 percent of whom tell us that sustainability plays a key role in their purchasing decisions.

“The competition will enable us to find new, talented entrepreneurs and facilitate their success through the strength of the Westfield centres and through access to the millions of visitors who come through our doors.”

In each region, winners of the Westfield Grand Prix will be selected by a panel of experts, with one chosen by the public through votes cast by visitors to Westfield centres. Winners will receive a lease of up to one year, free of charge, in a Westfield centre to test their concept across a large customer base, along with tailored support from URW experts and a dedicated advertising plan developed by the retail media agency Westfield Rise.

The winner's prize includes a 50,000-pound contribution to design and store fit-out and 20,000 pounds worth of media promotion.

Previous Westfield Grand Prix winners include Jimmy Fairly and Good News Coffee. Applications close on June 30, with the winner announced in October, followed by a European final in November.