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Nadine Mather and Chloë Loubser
V&A outperforms national average for festive season
The V&A Waterfront have released its sales figures for the festive season, reporting strong trade with an overall year-on-year increase of 13% and an 8.24% year-on-year for festive season. Based on November 2012 national retail trade results, released by Statistics SA on 16 January, indicators signal that the V&A retail sales growth in December will track ahead of the national average.
The company's retail figures outperformed the latest national retail figures reported by Statistics SA on 16 January 2013, which announced a national 3.4% increase in trade year-on-year for the month of November 2012.
The centre said the increase in visitors over the festive season had boosted retail trading.
"We have seen a 10% year-on-year increase in footfall to the waterfront during the month of December, with over 3 million visitors this past month," said David Green, CEO of the V&A Waterfront. "We invest heavily in keeping a pulse on retail, food and beverage and entertainment trends and offerings which will appeal to our visitors.
"New retail and food and beverage offerings, such as Lush, Super Dry, Emporio Armani and the Market on the Wharf, contributed to the strong increase in visitors, as did the opening of the newly refurbished food court and the Moyo restaurant, in early December 2012. The festive season entertainment and events programme also proved to be a strong draw card for visitors.
"Keeping our offering current and on target to meet our customers' needs is critical for our business success. We conduct market research and implement changes according to demand where possible."
New stores for 2013
In line with predictions from Cape Town tourism authorities, the centre is anticipating strong trade to continue in February 2013.
It will be launching the Western Cape's first Top Shop store towards the end of the first quarter of 2013, in a space is being developed adjacent to Mango. A number of established favourites will be relocated in order to accommodate the UK based retailer. The Tommy Hilfiger brand will also be added to the mix of premier brands in the first quarter of the year.
"Our retail strategy is to constantly review and refresh our tenant mix and retail offering to ensure that our 23 million visitors per annum, both local and international, have new stores, restaurants and entertainment on offer. This underpins the increase in visitor figures and retail trade over the festive season. We manage upcoming tenant changes very carefully, to make sure we have the right offerings and store adjacencies that fit within the overall retail strategy," concludes Green.
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