SCentre specialty sales improving but majors fall behind

SCentre group reported its sales and leasing performance for the 3rd Quarter this week, revealing an improvement in Specialty sales but with a decline in Major store sales.

Key headlines;

• Total in-store sales grew 2.4% for the three months and 1.6% for the year Specialty in-store sales grew 2.9% for the three months and 1.8% for the year
• Majors in-store sales were (0.6%) for the three months and 1.0% for the year

As the charts above show, most sectors and states saw an improvement in the sales growth for the 3 months to September 2019 as compared to the 12 months to September 2019, suggesting that the last quarter's growth has driven the annual result much higher than the first 9 months of the year.

This is a pleasing result, the results for the majors are not so good;

• Supermarket in-store sales grew 2.0% for the three months and 3.8% for the year, suggesting the last quarter has been a drag on performance
• Discount Department Stores in-store sales grew 1.9% for the three months and 5.5% for the year, and
• Department Store in-store sales fell -6.1% for the three months and -4.5% for the year,

The challenges for the Majors are all about how to maintain market relevance. All of the major store groups are cutting back store numbers in an attempt to survive.

Once again, the impacts of the changing nature of these major spaces will have significant impacts on capital expenditure requirements and sustainable rents.