Value's growing value

Where would the retail property market, particularly in secondary towns, be without the new breed of value retailers?

The Poundlands, 99p Stores and B&M Bargains of this world, along with longer-established rivals like Wilkinson, have taken advantage of the glut of available high street space and all laid claim to the market position occupied for a century by Woolworths.

The recession provided a unique opportunity for these retailers to accelerate their growth, but this gold rush couldn’t last forever and today’s takeover by B&M of rival Opus, which is strong in Scotland and Northern Ireland, perhaps points the way to a spell of consolidation in the sector.

The challenge for any retailer in what is now a very crowded value market is to create a point of difference. And property gives the opportunity to do just that. 99p Stores launch of an out of town format called Family Bargains could point the way to the next phase of the development of value retail.

After all, as well as competing with each other, the biggest competition to the value specialists is from the supermarkets. Many of the hardlines sold by the value players are quite bulky and creating a store where shoppers can load up the car easily is the logical next step.

The challenge will be that property on retail parks is harder to come by and on decent parks is in strong demand from fashion retailers in particular. But as with high streets, there are top tier parks and secondary ones, and it’s not hard to see a seond tier of parks developing a value focus over the years ahead.