Dudley, Llanelli and Morecombe score lowest on retail ‘vitality’ ranking

Dudley, Llanelli and Morecombe have received the lowest ‘vitality’ ranking on a new index of the top 500 British shopping and town centres produced by retail specialists Harper Dennis Hobbs. The first ever ‘vitality’ ranking scored the towns on the quality of their retail offering, rather than merely their size,

assessing a wide range of variables, including the proportion of premium/luxury retailers versus value retailers, vacancy rates, and the suitability of retail to the local customer.

Expected strong performers such as Westfield London, Chelsea and Knightsbridge feature highly in the ranking

in terms of ‘vitality’, with Westfield taking top spot with a potential retail spend of 2.3 billion pounds. However, those areas were closely followed by “small but vibrant centres” such as Richmond, Islington, Beverley and Chiswick.

At the other end of the ranking was Dudley, classed as the lowest ranked town centre with a potential retail spend of just 413 million pounds, which has been attributed to strong competition from Merry Hill shopping centre.

Llanelli and Morecambe were also ranked at the bottom and were highlighted as towns that were in need of “concerted effort/investment” to regenerate their town centres, and that they needed to improve their retail offer and adapt to their local customer as currently they tend to attract a poor quality of retail tenants.

Harper Dennis Hobbs launches Britain’s first retail ‘vitality’ ranking

Jonathan De Mello, head of retail consultancy at Harper Dennis Hobbs, said: “This is the first ever retail ranking for Great Britain to incorporate 'vitality'; taking into account the quality of retail provision in a centre. This key new metric for the market will be attractive to retailers and investors alike, as it enables them to assess which centres are growing fast in terms of the quality of retail, and as such where trading performance - and investment opportunities - can be maximised.

“No retailer should ever open in a location purely based on market size. The best performing retailers plan their expansion by evaluating the quality of retail centres and the suitability of the centre to their brand.”

De Mello added: “Significant media focus is often placed on vacancy rates and the change in these over time. However, a reduction in vacancy rates is not always positive if those vacant units are filled with what could be perceived to be ‘out of fashion’ tenants. Our vitality scoring system is multivariate - so takes into account the type of retail in a centre as well as pure levels of occupancy.”

Image: Dudley town centre