ONE of Britain's most influential retailers has called on Nottingham to make sure it cements its position as the fifth biggest shopping destination outside London. Andy Street, the chief executive of John Lewis, says the city must make sure it refreshes its main shopping centres while ensuring visitors are given more reasons to come to the city and spend time there.
He spoke out as Nottingham waits to find out about Capital Shopping Centres' plans for both the Victoria Centre and Broadmarsh – both viewed as in need of substantial updating.
John Lewis remains the anchor store in the Victoria Centre, and the employee-owned retailer looks likely to announce a substantial investment in its presence there next year.
But Mr Street, who visited the store on Friday, said a challenging economy and competition from other destinations meant Nottingham and its key retail stakeholders must show soon that they are investing in the future.
"Three things need to happen here," Mr Street told Business Post.
"You need a city centre as a whole that is dynamic, because you can't depend on people coming here just because of the Victoria Centre.
"The second thing is that the Victoria Centre does need to be refreshed because it looks its age. I'm optimistic that Capital Shopping Centres is making progress there.
"Finally, the centre does need to refresh its mix of tenants, which all destinations have to do from time to time."
Mr Street's comments come as the city is still waiting to see detailed plans for the expansion of the Victoria Centre and the refurbishment of Broadmarsh, which CSC bought from rival shopping centre developer Westfield in 2010 on the eve of a major revamp.
CSC has since been working with the international architect Benoy and the property consultancy FHP on its plans for the city, but no announcement has been made.
John Lewis is one of the UK's best-performing retailers, and Mr Street's comments will be seen as a reminder that Nottingham has ground to make up.
The long-established partnership, which also includes the food chain Waitrose, is seen as having responded to the challenge posed by online retailing much more adeptly than some of its high street rivals.
Mr Street said he was entirely comfortable with the concept of "roboshoppers" – people who research their purchases offline in stores, but buy online.
The numbers of people purchasing through the John Lewis website has rocketed to around a quarter of sales, with many customers engaging in "click-and-collect" – buying through the website but collecting in store.
"What we know is that most people who buy online will have done some research in our shops," he said.
"I'm absolutely fine with all this because it doesn't matter to me whether they buy online or in the shop."
Mr Street does not believe all retail destinations have yet appreciated the scale and nature of the change wrought by the growth of online shopping.
"It means different things for different destinations," he said. "
For the successful centres like Nottingham it means that people need to be able to come for a day out, do their research, have that sensory experience and then perhaps do their transaction online.
"But it is much more challenging for secondary and tertiary locations where they will not have chain stores to act as a pull.
"Places like Nottingham have got to be thinking about how they can become destinations where people can have a full-on experience.
"So you also have to think about things like transport, how easy it is to park, about leisure.
"You've also got to consider the shops themselves – the different areas you have in a city and making sure you have units of the right size and shape."
While other high street chains have struggled, with major names like Comet collapsing, John Lewis has chalked up consistent growth.
But Mr Street admitted it had been a challenge to marry the drive for growth with the maintenance of customer service standards which it is historically associated with.
He said: "It is a challenge, but we think we're winning. Our service has got to be as good if you have an online delivery as it is in store. We've had to look very closely at our processes to make sure they're reliable."
Mr Street came to the Nottingham store at its most critical trading period of the year.
A seasoned hand at sniffing the air, he said the store's trading was "where it needed to be" with two weekends remaining before Christmas.
"The shop has been busy right from the start this morning, which is just as it should be," he told Business Post.
"As we speak, there are 18 days left to go, and we are where we need to be in terms of the numbers of people transferring interest into activity at the tills.
"The critical test is how busy the tills are and what I call the bag count – which tells me people are actually buying things."
He added: "We have got to continue to invest here in Nottingham because in retailing you cannot stand still and as an anchor we cannot afford to be static.
"We haven't finalised things yet, but I expect to be making an announcement about major investment here next year."
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