The term “clone town” is fast becoming acliché. But unfortunately it is the perfect phrase to describe the retail offer in most of today’s UK’s towns and cities. The same brands and retailers selling the same merchandise up and down the country have turned the UK into one big, generic high street.
The situation is set to worsen. Research published last month by the all-party parliamentary group for small shops stated that more than half the independent retailers on Britain’s high streets could be out of business within nine years.
However, there are signs of a fight back with the announcement earlier this month that the Competition Commissions is going to investigate the supermarkets’ domination of Britain’s grocery market.
Whatever the outcome, it is unlikely to change the look of Manchester, whose main retail thoroughfares of Market Street and the Arndale Centre are home to large chains, such as Marks & Spencer, Next, Tesco,Debenhams and Bhs. The list goes on and, of course, something would be seriously wrong if did not.
As Paul Nichols, retail partner and head of Cushman & Wakefield’s Manchester office, says: “We have to have the multiples, just as every city has to have the high-street names. If we didn’t have the multiples, then we would be lagging behind other cities.”
But this is Manchester. During its research three years ago into what makes a city, independent think tank Demos described it as the San Francisco of England. It is home to Affleck’s Palace, the famous independent haunt that spawned designers such as Wayne Hemingway of Red or Dead fame. It is also the city that was home to the 1980s music revolution that had the country dressing in hippy-esque clothes.
In fact, research by Jones Lang LaSalle shows that Manchester is well provided for in terms of independent retailing, with such retailers occupying 20% of city-centre floorspace. This puts the city joint third behind Liverpool, where independents occupy 27% of floorspace, and Brighton at 25%.
The problem is that very few independents are on the prime pitch. And the reasons are the same as those in every other city centre. First, the big boys can pay rents that, in the eyes of the independents, are extortionate. Manchester’s prime city-centre retail rents are £300 per sq ft, whereas those in the Northern Quarter – for example, on Oldham Street – are as little as £30 per sq ft.
“If the independents were able to pay the kind of rents seen in the city centre, then they wouldn’t be independent for long, because they would obviously be able to grow and expand,” says Paul Rice, chief executive of the Manchester City Centre Management Company.
The second reason independents tend not to dominate is that Manchester needs the big high-street names to be able to compete with rival cities. A city’s retail market is not built on independents alone.
Third, public demand is driving theexpansion of the multiples. A walk through Primark’s massive 150,000 sq ft store in Manchester city centre during half-term proves this point. The store is crammed.
But away from the prime pitch, the independents are thriving. “There are several regional independent retailers based or trading in Manchester, including multibrand fashion retailers Flannels and Westworld, and shoe retailer Aspecto, together with ladies’ fashion operators Pastiche and Vicky Martin,” says John Agnew, director at Savills’ Manchester office.
The Northern Quarter is going strong with its group of independent retailers, including secondhand and retro-style clothes retailers.
“Recently, the overall retail trend in the quality and branded fashion market has seen operators leaving London for large provincial cities like Manchester,” says Agnew.
Indeed, there is a growing trend for developers that want to offer something different to have independents in their schemes.
Bruntwood, which has a major presence in the city centre, is keen to stress its fondness for independent retailers. It is putting sole operators, along with the multiples, into its redevelopment of York Street, behind City Tower (formerly Piccadilly Plaza) just off Piccadilly Gardens.
Alternative approach
Head of retail at the company, Toby Sproll, says: “Retail is key to the presentation of our city-centre portfolio and the service it can provide our office customers. Not being covenant-led means we can do deals with local independents, and we can assess the viability and quality of what they could bring to the building and environment as a whole. While this may be considered an alternative approach, we often find it works with the retailer bringing genuine individuality to the location.”
Bruntwood’s York Street development is just one of the latest schemes in the city to accommodate independent retailers. Independents are also trading at Argent’s 300,000 sq ft Piccadilly Place, and Allied London plans to include them in its Spinningfields scheme (see p78).
Despite developers’ intentions, however, they still have to watch their bottom line. “Independents are important to the city,” says Stuart Burdon Bailey, director with Jones Lang LaSalle. But he adds that any preference for independents has to be balanced against investors’ aspirations and the strong investment market, which relies on the strong covenants that come with the multiples.
“Maybe the council should aim to bring more independents in,” says Tim Westlake-Bryant, associate director of Sanderson Weatheralls. “But there’s not a lot the council can do because it is down to the landlord and who they can get to pay the rent.”
In today’s increasingly commercial world, the high-street chains reign. As Nichols says: “Restaurants are where the independents are winning. And it is the nightlife, the airport and even the football clubs that differentiate Manchester from other cities. But there’s no room for retail independents in the prime pitch any more. I’m afraid that went in the 1980s.”
