Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield news and archive

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...

Retail

URW reveals development plans for Westfield Old Orchard in Illinois

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) has unveiled an array of development plans for its Westfield Old Orchard site in Skokie, Illinois. The company said the North Shore destination will be “unlike anything else in Chicagoland”, with a park, event space and various amenities to be added to the modernised retail centre. The multi-phase plan already...

Retail

URW set to open three new Westfield flagships throughout Europe

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) has announced it will be furthering the roll out of its Westfield brand into Spain, Sweden and Poland. In autumn, the retail group will be rebranding three of its centres into Westfield flagship stores, including Parquesur in Madrid, Taby Centrum in Stockholm and Galeria Mokotow in Warsaw. It comes as part of URW’...

Retail

Westfield sees return of global brands for festive shopping

Westfield London has welcomed back a variety of global brands for the festive shopping period. Coming to Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City, the brands look to engage with visitors with pop-ups and in centre activations. Both London centres have seen around 40 million visitors since they reopened in spring. In Westfield London, Nike...

Retail

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield rebranding six European shopping centres

Shopping centre owners Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield has confirmed that it is rebranding six of its centres across Europe as Westfield. The centres in Spain, Germany, France and Austria will rebrand in September as part of the group’s plan to have a globally recognised network of flagship shopping centres in the US, UK and Europe. The new Westfield...

People

Westfield hires new Chief Customer Officer, Caroline Puechoultres

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield has hired Caroline Puechoultres as Chief Customer Officer, effective July 15, 2021. URW, which owns the Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City shopping centres, revealed Caroline will be responsible for growing the company’s consumer offering and strengthening commercial partnerships. She will also play a key...

RetailFeatured

Westfield reveals that community is a top priority for retail in 2021

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield has released new research on the impact of the pandemic on the future of retail, which reveals that community has emerged as a top priority for consumers, suggesting that locally morphed experiences will allow physical retail to thrive in 2021 and beyond. In its ‘Westfield How We Shop: What’s Changed’ report the...

Business

Westfield Stratford City opens Covid vaccination centre

Shopping centre Westfield Stratford City has donated space to the NHS to create a large scale vaccination centre in the heart of Newham in London. Set up by the East London NHS Foundation Trust, the vaccination hub will be administering the Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine. It is one of hundreds of nationwide centres set up to deliver the Covid...

PeopleFeatured

Westfield extends management board and names chief operating officer

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield has confirmed the appointment of Scott Parsons as its new chief operating officer for the UK region, alongside changes to extend its management board to “bolster its agility in responding to the current challenges and to prepare for the future”. The new management board will lead a more decentralised...

Business

Westfield owner URW responds to 'market rumours' about equity raise

Shopping mall operator and owner of Westfield London, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW), has responded to “market rumours” about a potential rights issue. A report last week by Bloomberg suggested the company was looking to raise 3.5 billion dollars (2.67 billion pounds) in fresh equity. The company's full statement read: “As detailed in its...

Retail

Westfield owner URW reports 14.2 drop in global net rental income

Shopping centre operator Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) has reported a 14.2 percent drop in net rental income across its global destinations for the first half of the year to 1 billion euros (960 million pounds). Collections for its UK destinations were down 34.1 percent. In mid-March, almost all of the company’s centres were forced to close....

RetailFeatured

URW reports strong footfall in global destinations as Westfield preps to reopen

Shopping centre operator Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) has said that it’s seen “strong progress” at its reopened destinations across Europe, with footfall “generally above levels the group anticipated”. Sixty-five of the firm’s 90 shopping centres have now been allowed to reopen as restrictions in their respective countries begin to ease. The...