Shopping Centers Today is the news magazine of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
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n e w s m a k e r s northward ho! chaim katzman leads gazit-globe into the nordic countries By Nicky Godding G o north, young man. and south. But not east. the nordic countries and Brazil are in gazit-globe's sights at this time, but China is not, at least not for now. "the nordic countries are the best-kept secret for retailers and investors," said Chaim Katzman, the firm's chairman. the nordic region — principally, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, norway and Sweden, plus associated territories — offers strong and stable economies that are continuing to urbanize, he says. the one thing lacking is adequate retail, Katzman says. "there is a noticeable absence of international retail brands in the nordic countries compared to the rest of Europe." this, Katzman says, is because retailers have failed to plan strategically for the region as a whole, limiting their focus to individual countries. Finland has a population of about 5 million, norway has 4 million, and Estonia has 1.5 million (considered in the main a Baltic country, Estonia is nonetheless thought of as nordic in some circles). "We think you need to take a bird's-eye view of the region as one cohesive area," he said. "the way I see it, the distance from helsinki to Stockholm is shorter than the distance from miami to Jacksonville, 54 sC T / J a n u a r y 2 0 1 4 and we manage our Jacksonville shopping centers from our miami office, so what is the difference?" In the past year gazit-globe has acquired Kista galleria, one of the largest and most successful shopping centers in Stockholm. Strong local nordic brands have posed a challenge to foreign chains, especially in the supermarket sector. ICS group and Prisma are two of the region's leading grocery retail groups. "Examples of global brands that are still missing from the nordic region include uniqlo, t.J.maxx, Banana republic, Victoria's