Turkey

RETAIL INTERNATIONAL ~ TURKEY

Retail International® the UK based independent shopping centre and retail consultancy that focuses on projects in The Middle East is extending its geographical spread into Turkey.

Retail International®, from its base in the UK has been operating extensively across the Middle East for many years and Simon Thomson the firm’s owner is well known in the region. He was a founder of The Middle East Council of Shopping Centres, based in Dubai and has been involved with many high profile projects across the region including, most recently in UAE, Lebanon, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain.

Simon is also a regular contributor to international retail journals and speaker at professional conferences.

Turkey enjoys a rapidly expanding economy and was identified as one of the future hotspots for shopping centre development in Europe at the ICSC Retail World Summit held in Istanbul.

At Autumn 2005 there was reckoned to be some 1.7 million sq. metres of retail shopping centre space in Turkey, about half of which is in Istanbul.Over 60 new shopping centres are due for completion before the end of 2008 with potential for another 300 new shopping centres in Turkey over the next 10-15 years.

Over 100 international retailers are already in Turkey including recent entrants such as Ikea in 2005 and Harvey Nichols in 2006. C&A opened its first store in Turkey in Profilo Shopping Mall, Mecidiyekoy on 5 May 2007 and Gap has announced plans to open in conjunction with a Gulf franchisee during 2007-2008.

KANYON MALL, ISTANBUL (below).

Tesco opened its first store, under the Kipa brand, since moving into the country in 1993.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

HARVEY NICHOLS EXPANSION CENTRES ON MIDDLE EAST -

ISTANBUL & DUBAI

September 2005

In July 2004 Harvey Nichols struck an exclusive licence agreement with Al Tayer Group of Dubai to debut in the UAE at the Mall of the Emirates, where it is scheduled to open with a 120,000 sq.ft (11,150 m2) store.

Harvey Nichols has just disclosed details of its next overseas opening, in Istanbul, where it will trade out of 86,115 sq. ft (8,000 m2) as anchor in the Kanyon Shopping Mall, scheduled to open in September 2006.

Simon Thomson, Principal of Retail International® - the retail consultancy that specialises in advising cross border retailers and shopping centre developers in the Middle East and Levant – commented “With three major department stores in the area, Harvey Nichols is underscoring the emergence of the leading cities of the region as serious alternative destinations for retail tourists seeking to avoid London or Paris”. Thomson added that in conjunction with associates in Istanbul his firm are talking to a number of Gulf retailers and developers currently assessing their own expansion plans across the Levant and east Mediterranean rim.

Further Harvey Nichols stores are slated to open in Hong Kong and Dublin in the coming months.

Istanbul

Dubai

Riyadh

Images Source: Harvey Nichols

_______________________________________________

SHOPPING ACROSS THE EAST-WEST DIVIDE
Extract from ‘Stores + Shops’ EHI-Magazine No. 05_2006

by Mark Faithfull

At present, Turkey boasts 95 shopping malls, 28 of them in Istanbul, while another 46 are to be built by 2010. The most modern Turkish mall to date is the four level 34,200 sqm Metro City at Levent in the centre of Istanbul.
But a rival is already in sight for Turkey's largest shopping centre. The Multi Turk- mall company is planning to construct the country's largest mall: Forum Istanbul, a 150,000 sqm complex with shops, leisure facilities, offices, residential property and an hotel.
Ankara, Izmir, Antalya and Bursa are also attracting real estate investors.
Multi Turk- mall is planning to build "Forum Etik" in the capital, Ankara, while in Izmir, the same developers are working on the 66,000 sqm Forum Bornova.
But the biggest and most spectacular new mall is that of Kanyon in Istanbul, with its boldly impressive architecture, 179 luxury apartments, 26 office floors and virtually 40,000 sqm of retail space. The mall opened in spring 2006 and one of the anchor stores, British fashion house Harvey Nichols, moved in to occupy 7,300 sqm in October. The store trades under licence with Untim, which also has exclusive rights to Tommy Hilfiger, Gas, G-Star and other labels in Turkey.