Retail News

Dan Murphy's to open at Erina
Retail giant, Woolworths, will open their second Dan Murphy’s liquor store on the Central Coast at Fountain Plaza, Erina in mid-June. Dan Murphy’s first Central Coast store was built in the Westfield Tuggerah Shopping Centre. The newly designed store will employ fifty people including casuals.

Dan Murphy’s is a large format liquor supermarket described as having the largest range of liquor products of any store at Australia’s lowest prices. The opening of the store will create real competition in retail liquor at Erina with the Coles-owned 1st Choice Liquor Superstore almost opposite on The Entrance Road, plus other liquor stores at Erina Fair and a boutique store at Erina Heights.

When Dan Murphy’s was purchased by Woolworths a decade ago they had five stores with turnover of around $100 million. This has now swelled to 88 stores with a turnover of around $2 billion annually.

Westfield Tuggerah turnover up
Westfield Tuggerah Shopping Centre has reported an increase in turnover of 2.9% for calendar year 2008, up from $458.6 million in 2007 to $471.9 million. It is the first comparable year-on-year period for two years for Westfield, as in 2005 and 2006 the Centre was undergoing redevelopment and expansion.

In terms of sales generated per square metre of Gross Lettable Area (GLA) the Centre improved its performance by 4.9% from $6,278 to $6,586. Sales generated per square metre are a key indicator of a centre’s performance. However, specialty store turnover per square metre increased by only 1.2% (specialty stores are those with an area of less than 400sqm) indicating that the smaller stores struggled in the difficult climate. Centre traffic increased from 10.2 million people in 2007 to 10.4 million in 2008.

The results come from the latest edition of Shopping Centre News (SCN) and its Big Guns 2009 report on the performance of Australia’s ninety largest shopping centres, known as ‘Big Guns’.

SCN also reported on the performance of Erina Fair which has shown an increase in turnover per square metre of 3.7% on a decreased GLA of 4,559 but has fallen from 17th place in the Big Guns League to 20th place. The reduction in GLA was due to relocation of tenants to make way for a K-Mart store which is under construction.

Specialty store turnover for the year barely increased from $6,911 to $6,979 indicating that the major stores which include Myer, Target, Big W, Woolworths, Coles and Aldi have accounted for almost all of the apparent increase.

After reporting small increases in Gross Lettable Areas in 2006 and 2007, Erina Fair has now reported a reduction in GLA to 104,833 square metres. Centre turnover increased from $571.50 million in 2007 to $567.30 million in 2008 – a decrease of .073%.

In the four years from 2005 to 2008, annual turnover at Erina Fair showed an increase of less than 0.5% with traffic in the same period falling from 12.8 million to 12.4 million.

Deepwater Plaza celebrates 25th year
Deepwater Plaza Shopping Centre is celebrating its 25th year at Woy Woy, having opened in April 1984. Developed by New World Properties – a development arm of Coles-Myer Ltd – the centre changed shopping habits of consumers from West Gosford and Kariong to Empire Bay and the whole Peninsula.

The Centre was anchored by a Super K-mart – a new concept store that included a discount department store and supermarket, which now operate separately as K-mart and Coles supermarket. Retailers who opened in the Centre at the time and have remained tenants include: Deepwater Surf, Peters Meats, Suzanne Grae and The Greater Building Society.

In 1994, Deepwater Plaza expanded to accommodate a Franklins Supermarket, Lowes Menswear, Bakers Delight, Michel’s Patisserie and Lay Anne Handcrafts with all continuing to trade through to today. Further expansion took place in 2005, bringing the area of the Plaza up to a Gross Lettable Area (GLA) of 18,370sqm. Additional traders that came into the Centre at this time were Best & Less, The Reject Shop, Millers, Newcastle Permanent Building Society, Commonwealth Bank and Passion Hair & Beauty.

In the national shopping centre stakes, Deepwater Plaza rates 21st out of a total 160 ‘Mini Gun’ shopping centres in Australia (Mini Gun centres are those with a GLA up to 20,000sqm). Current pedestrian traffic to the Plaza is over 4 million people per year.

Deepwater Plaza is owned by the Schwartz Family Co Pty Ltd and is managed by Savills Australia.

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