2017 has been another successful year for IKEA Centres Russia with 250 million people visiting its 14 MEGA branded shopping centres and 85 Russian, and international retailers including Superdry, Lindt, and Julius Meinl joining IKEA Centres Russia’s portfolio. Over €50 million has also been invested in creating new food & beverage space at MEGA malls, transforming them from providing a pure shopping experience into destinations for socializing with family and friends, and recreational meeting places.
Food & beverage (F&B) space is becoming an integral part of every MEGA Centre. It has already become an anchor in its own right at MEGA Khimki in 2017, and at MEGA Teply Stan in 2016. While work is underway to ensure it also becomes an anchor at MEGA Kazan and MEGA Ekaterinburg the coming months. At each of these MEGA centres F&B space is being almost doubled to approximately nine percent of GLA. The investment programme will also see F&B being significantly expanded at additional MEGA centres in the near future.
IKEA Centres Russia’s new ‘Taste Boulevard’ concept is a major part of its investment programme and is central to its vision of creating social, destination dining concepts across its MEGA Centres. Taste Boulevard is a specially created concept offering a more quality dining space and experience, divided into zones for family, youngsters and urban, each with its unique design and feel. A wide variety of culinary offerings are available at a range of different prices, ensuring there is something for every customer.
The concept, comprising brand new F&B space, launched at Moscow’s MEGA Khimki in September, and at MEGA Teply Stan in Moscow in 2016. In the coming months the exciting new concept will become available for the first time in MEGA Kazan and MEGA Ekaterinburg.
F&B sits at the heart of IKEA Centres Russia’s ambitious MEGA mall upgrade programme, and a primary reason for this is because demand for eating out in Russia is rising. It is a trend IKEA Centres Russia is noticing at its MEGA malls. Visiting F&B outlets is now a key reason why customers come to MEGA malls, and the share of customers visiting MEGA centres to eat out has risen by 75 percent in recent years. Research also shows that 30 percent of all visits made to Russian shopping centres are for for lunch or dinner, and IKEA Centres Russia is responding to the needs of these customers by creating new spaces to meet, socialise and relax.
IKEA Centres Russia also sees a clear relationship between its new F&B offer and increased dwell times. For example, the dwell times of guests visiting F&B outlets has increased by 50 percent, while F&B tenant sales rose by 14 percent after the Taste Boulevard Concept was launched. There are already 340 F&B units across the MEGA portfolio with international brands including Starbucks, Costa Coffee and Dunkin Donuts.
Milen Gentchev, CEO of IKEA Centres Russia commented: “Anticipating guest expectations and constantly surprising them is the key to the successful long-term development of our business. We believe in this vision, which is why we are updating our shopping centres to create spaces for recreation, leisure and entertainment, ensuring every visit to MEGA creates positive emotions and lasting impressions for every guest.
“In recent years we have interviewed over 110,000 MEGA customers to understand their needs. This has enabled us to shape our F&B investment and general upgrade programme around their needs, and should lead to increased sales and footfall for all our tenants,” he continued.
IKEA Centres Russia is a stable partner for international retailers looking to enter the Russian market where many of the cultural and legal barriers to entry have already been safely negotiated. In 2017 150 international and local brands opened 215 new sites in MEGA malls. These include Armani Exchange, KIABI, United Colors of Benetton, Deichmann, Starbucks, Geox, New Balance and many more. This equals 53 900 m2.
2018 is set to be another major year of investment that will further expand and upgrade the MEGA portfolio. MEGA Adygea-Kuban will nearly double in size to 190,000 sqm, as part of a €200 million EUR revamp that will see it become an inspiring destination for socialising, shopping and relaxing. €400 million will also be invested in MEGA Teply Stan, increasing its GLA from 158,000 sqm to 224,000 sqm. Further major renovation work will also be undertaken at MEGA Yekaterinburg and MEGA Teply Stan.
