Arcadia Group

Osklen said:
Totally agree and in fairness the council are talking about building 1000 new homes in walking distance of the city centre. Hopefully that begins to create the transition toward city centre living and gets more people using it. The other thing they can do is to limit edge of city residential development - difficulty with Sunderland is that it probably needs more wealthy individuals to live in the city.

Also been saying for a while that City centres need to change and shrink in size to provide a better offer over a smaller area to create more concentrated footfall, with the residual retail converting to more housing or entertainment venues.
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You should see what's happened to Manchester. That said the Metrolink has made even some of the bigger new builds just as accessible to the city centre than walking is.
It's changed a fair bit since I lived there.
 


Keawyeds said:
You should see what's happened to Manchester. That said the Metrolink has made even some of the bigger new builds just as accessible to the city centre than walking is.
It's changed a fair bit since I lived there.
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I think one of the issues is that as we don’t have a comprehensive rail system people still tend to use/need cars and as such city centre living puts people off especially when property prices are as low for a house and drive on the outskirts of the city.

Also graduates and young people move to Manchester to find work and more than likely will need to rent rather than purchase. That demand is small in Sunderland due to lack of employment opportunities in the city centre.
 
Osklen said:
I think one of the issues is that as we don’t have a comprehensive rail system people still tend to use/need cars and as such city centre living puts people off especially when property prices are as low for a house and drive on the outskirts of the city.

Also graduates and young people move to Manchester to find work and more than likely will need to rent rather than purchase. That demand is small in Sunderland due to lack of employment opportunities in the city centre.
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Honestly though I have no idea where all the jobs must be for all these people who must have moved there since I left.
There's absolutely tons of flats gone up. Thousands.
 
Zimba said:
Not a chance will M&S take Debenhams it's way too big. If they were to go anywhere it would either be Hylton Retail Park or a new build somewhere like Darlington, Durham, Silverlink (South Shields), Teesside Park (Stockton) and Bishop Auckland. Be surprised if they even have a clothes range if they did move.
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Many would argue that current m&s building is too small.
As I say, there were rumours they were going to expand onto crowtree.
The last bit doesn't even make sense. They'd move from Sunderland to Darlo? What are you going on about?
 
FoldingStars said:
Topshop and PLT/Boohoo are different kind of businesses though, PLT and Booboo copy the Topshop items, make 500 of them for £2 each and sell them for £30, stuff is designed and uploaded onto the site within weeks. Whereas Topshop have brick and mortar stores, will need to produce 20000 of the items and even though they are not exactly long lasting its not the wear once and throw away items that PLT/Boohoo produce.

Removing £1.2 billion 15 years ago was a shocking decision and he would have renoved a lot more since but if Topshop followed those online brands then theyd have gone out of business a lot quicker. Sure PLT tried the brick and mortar path and had to close as they just couldnt make it work.

Topshop name will be bought by somebody who just keeps the site and sells the cheap sweatshop made dresses that everyone was kicking off about last year but then totally forgot about it and carried on buying them.
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Mind I'm not too sure on this 100% though, it's definitely more that it's become irrelevant aswell. Topshop isn't the brand it once was and to the younger generation (their target audience) it's become a bit uncool.

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All those aren't having the same issues as Arcadia and they're their direct competitiors infact their sales are increasing at a much higher pace than expected.

How on earth Superdry and Hollister are still trading though is a mystery though as they have massive units and they never seem to have anyone inside and both them brands to most people are seriously uncool and you wouldn't want to be seen in the stuff and it's been the case for awhile now.
 
42 said:
Many would argue that current m&s building is too small.
As I say, there were rumours they were going to expand onto crowtree.
The last bit doesn't even make sense. They'd move from Sunderland to Darlo? What are you going on about?
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M&S is done as a general retailer pretty much. It won't be before long before it's a supermarket, sales are dropping almost yearly. The Sunderland M&S food hall is one of the worst around in terms of range aswell, surprised it's survived so long.

It's just a list of stores where they've moved from stores similar to Sunderland on the high street to either retail parks or standalone units. For Darlo they used to have a store in the centre roughly the same size as Sunderland and now it's just a food hall at West Park on the outskirt. It's been happening gradually for awhile now. Add Hartlepool to the list which I missed as that's the same.

New M&S store opens - a day after old one closes - Darlington
 
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hertsmackem said:
laura Ashley was also in administration recently it remains to be seen if the new owners can get a song out of the brand


there is a lot more than meets the eye to the Kamani Brothers success, they found many shall we say loopholes and exploited them very well.
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I actually had them do the Great Manchester Run for me many moons ago.
Umar bought me a pint afterwards. Nice lad. Adam was a bit quieter but I suspect it's Umar and his Dad who are the brains behind a lot of it. That and they hired good people to push their brand.
 
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Osklen said:
Issue is how do you attract people to live in the city centre? Why live in an apartment and not a house. Works in Manchester I suspect and other major cities but a struggle for somewhere like Sunderland. Chicken and egg situation people won’t live in city centre until city centre is vice versa and business won’t locate in city centre until more people live and work in the centre.
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The houses that are being planned in the main are family houses rather than apartments
 
Keawyeds said:
I actually had them do the Great Manchester Run for me many moons ago.
Umar bought me a pint afterwards. Nice lad. Adam was a bit quieter but I suspect it's Umar and his Dad who are the brains behind a lot of it. That and they hired good people to push their brand.
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the dad and Adam are the brains not Umar. There is no way on this earth that these guys or anyone in the game could think that you could produce a dress and sell it for £5 in this country. It’s 100% impossible and they know it
 
42 said:
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The houses that are being planned in the main are family houses rather than apartments
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Yeah I noticed that, probably right to start off with. Overtime we need to move to apartments in the city centre to get more people living in the city centre, however I don’t think they would be viable at the moment.
 
hertsmackem said:
the dad and Adam are the brains not Umar. There is no way on this earth that these guys or anyone in the game could think that you could produce a dress and sell it for £5 in this country. It’s 100% impossible and they know it
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What do you base that on?
I'm just going off what I saw and how I dealt with them. It'll be over 6 years ago now mind you. Possibly pushing closer to 10.

I believe they have a property group too.
 
Select coaches said:
It would be nice but I’m afraid those days have gone. Working from my dining room table I can’t believe the number of vans going past delivering. At least everyone is working from home now so I’m not the house with the car on the drive that they pick out for the whole street’s deliveries like before.
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Obviously it won't go back to how it was pre supermarket days. I do though think there is a market for certain niche shops.
I wouldn't and I know my wife and daughter wouldn't buy clothes online. Clothes are something I want to see and feel before buying. Same with shoes I need to try them on without the mess on of having to send them back if they don't fit. There's a new cake and pastry shop just opened at Thorney Close that is doing alright. Hobby shops and toy shops always do well. Electrical goods shops like the one over Fulwell and the one at Seaham. Even DIY shops like Maxwells are competing with the big warehouses and stay in business. People still like the personal touch from smaller local shops and will pay a bit more to get that.
Rents in city centres will have to be sensible though and that will be the biggest stumbling block I think.
 
hertsmackem said:
the impact of more vans on the streets delivering is problematic enough, as for the environmental part, the slave labour scandals and packaging and flying goods all over the world it's a horrendous industry and does anyone care...I dont think so
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One van delivering to multiple households is way more efficient than multiple households driving to shops
 

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