Customers set the pace

 The markets of the largest Polish cities - Warsaw, Tricity, Poznań, Kraków and Wrocław  the most popular brands, such as Zara, H&M, Empik and Reserved, frequently situate their flagship retailer outlets along high streets rather than in shopping centres.

 Laughing at the winter

 Railway jewels

Piotr Kaszyński, who is a partner in Cushman & Wakefield, which will be advising the State Railways authorities on how to attract investors, stresses that: “The type of buildings constructed at railway station sites depends on the size of the city, the station and the plot on which an investment is to take place. But due to the excellent on–the–spot communication facilities, railway station shopping centres enjoy the opportunity to become regional centres exerting a tangible influence on the wide area surrounding a given city. These projects may also be multi–functional, containing offices and hotels.”

A solution to some of the needs of more demanding types of customers is provided by the greater degree of specialization of shopping centres. Taking the current boom on the housing market as a pointer, building materials centres would seem to be one promising sector. The owners of newly constructed homes, and also those on the secondary market in need of renovation, are expecting to find a wide range of diverse products required for finishing and decor. Renata Kusznierska expresses the generally held expectation that: “Potential Polish customers want to be allowed to choose between a kitchen sink costing PLN 500 and one of PLN 5,000. Such hypermarkets as Praktiker and Castorama do not meet all these requirements, and this is leading to the appearance of specialist retailers who have much more to offer.” She highlights the Gala Home and Interior centre to be opened in Lublin as a good example. The construction of the first stage of this venture, which is to cost an estimated PLN 44 mln, got off the ground this April and is expected to last one year. The investor is the Gala Capital Group, in which the shareholders are local entrepreneurs. The Gala centre is expected to contain around 13,500 sqm, on which 40 furniture and building material retailers will operate, together with a large supermarket of around 1,000 sqm selling radio and TV goods, as well as household durables. The retail parks created by Inter Ikea Polska are also part of this trend, including the one in the Warsaw district of Targówek, which was opened in late April.

New hypermarket siblings

5,000. A similar French venture is that of Leader Express, which is the younger brother of the Leader Price discount chain and is to comprise outlets of between 200 and 300 sqm.

            Ewa Andrzejewska