Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Issue link: https://sct.epubxp.com/i/231459
• China represents a major part of Ikea's plans to ramp up store openings. The expansion, combined with improved turnover at existing stores, will help the company boost sales to about $65 billion by 2020, according to Peter Agnefjall, CEO of the Scandinavian furniture chain. Ikea says it plans to open three stores in China this year. • Apple is set to open a store in Tokyo's upscale Omotesando shopping district early this year, its first new store in that city since 2005. The store will be one of 30 new units opening this year, two thirds of which are located outside the U.S. Apple will remodel about 30 of its 416 stores this year. S and partner tata Global beveraGeS operate 20 StoreS throuGhout india, includinG thiS banGalore unit, opened in november. • Columbus, Ohio–based apparel chain Express announced plans to open its first factory outlet stores in the second the next several years. Luxury-watch retailer Invicta has plans to open eight stores, including one in the quickly leasing 1 World Trade Center, says Jim Bieri, a principal of Detroit-based Stokas Bieri Real Estate. Many retailers who were dormant in the recession are now ramping up expansion plans, says Dave Cheatham, managing principal of Phoenix-based Velocity Retail. "We're shifting from consolidation and repositioning to a period of tepid but steady store expansion." Cheatham believes this year and next will serve as a catch-up time for traditional retailers, while 2016 and 2017 could bring "a resurgence of the entrepreneurial concepts we experienced in the 1980s and early 1990s." The growth of U.S. retailers abated somewhat late last year. "But there continues to be demand from quality tenants," Bieri said. Global growth H&M;, which opened about 250 stores last year, including units in Chile, Estonia, Lithuania, Serbia and Indonesia, is rolling out an upscale concept in Europe it calls & Other Stories. Lululemon Athletica, which operates about 200 U.S. stores, is planning about 100 more in the U.S., plus further growth in Asia and Europe. The chain's first dedicated stores in the U.K., Germany and the Netherlands are to open this year. "Lululemon sells lifestyle as much as they do clothing," said Kantar's Gildenberg. U.K.-based Arcadia Group — which owns Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Miss Selfridge, and Topshop and its Topman counterpart — is planning for 150 stores this year, including units in Australia, Azerbaijan, Canada, New Zealand and Vietnam. This follows Topshop's deal last year with Nordstrom to open 28 stores in the U.S. Brazil, which is preparing for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympics with roughly three dozen new malls, is seeing the likes of Daiso Japan, H&M;, Kappa, quarter of next year. • Outdoors-gear chains Gander Mountain and Cabela's are expanding. Gander Mountain opened four stores in the Texas cities of Lewisville, Mesquite, Round Rock and San Antonio last fall. The Mesquite store is one of the Gander Mountain Firearms Super Centers, which feature new and used firearms of all kinds. Meanwhile, rival Cabela's is expanding in the East, with plans to open stores in New York and Massachusetts. Cabela's is set to open an 88,000-square-foot store in the Buffalo suburb of Cheektowaga, N.Y., this fall, and a similar size unit in the Boston suburb of Berlin, in the spring of 2015. The chain also announced plans to expand its smaller Cabela's Outpost concept to Lubbock, Texas. Construction of the 42,000-square-foot store began this fall, with the opening set for summer. J an uar y 201 4 / SCT 33