Blog: What did we learn from Mapic?

Every year the European – and increasingly global – retail real estate industry gets together in Cannes on the French Mediterranean for two and a half days of frantic networking. And as with many of the nailed on events for the year, it always provides a useful snapshot of the collective mindset of the industry.

What makes Mapic different from national events is that not every country is at the same point in the economic growth or retraction cycle, but with few European geographies untouched by investor caution and macro-issues, most countries have suffered a sharp drop in new development over the past few years.

There was definitely more new development on show in 2013, although little of it was from the UK. Indeed, while the British contingent was once one of the most prominent in Cannes, emerging markets are now far more apparent. Europe’s move eastwards is certainly a feature of the current shows.The pipelines for Russia and Turkey dominate Europe’s upcoming flow of new space and that was writ clear at Mapic, but there was also plenty of activity on show from France, Scandinavia and, to a lesser extent, the rest of Northern Europe.

Many of those schemes are downtown and integrated into the existing fabric of their host cities, often with a large mixed use component. Where UK landlords and developers have definitely led is in the integration of digital innovation into their centres, there were also signs at this year’s Mapic that Continental Europe is beginning to catch up. Previously resistant to the idea of all things online, acceptance was notably up on 2012 as was interest in the small but noisy technology firms at the show.

The other big change over the past few years is the number of retailers who come to a show that was once the sole preserve of property professionals. As one agent said to me a few years back, many retailers are no longer comparing the attributes of Birmingham and Bristol, but rather Manchester and Munich. And there was no lack of developers keen to extol the virtues of their pan-national or pan-European portfolios, while franchise partners were also there to offer their expertise at new market entry.

So did we learn anything new at Mapic 2013? Perhaps not, this is a time of change against difficult economic factors, which naturally breeds caution. But trends have been entrenched: technology, leisure, food and beverage and travel retail were all prominent and the mood was cautiously upbeat.

The bottom appears to have been called – providing nothing dramatic jolts the market again in 2014 – cross-border activity remains a key driver for next year and many retailers are on a growth curve again. Maybe it was just the sun shining on the French Riviera but the show closed its doors to some definite rays of optimism.