SpaceandPeople extends deal with German shopping centre firm ECE

SpaceandPeople has extended its agreement with GB Immobilien (ECE) for the provision of retail merchandising units (RMUs) in ECE-managed shopping centres in Germany, it announced on Wednesday.

The agreement had been extended for a further 24 months until 31 January, with the number of units included in the extension period larger than in the previous period at 76 RMUs, compared with 65 previously.

Additionally, the average rental amount payable to ECE was lower than in the previous agreement, which SpaceandPeople said better reflected the current retail market.

“This is our 10th year of working with ECE as a provider of RMUs in Germany,” said SpaceandPeople group chief executive officer Matthew Bending.

“The agreement extension enables profitable trading without large minimum guarantees and we have removed all the RMUs that have not traded profitably in the past.

“ECE is working with us to bring more of its managed centres to us for RMU operations and estimates the number of units will increase from 76 to 91, with the balance of new units anticipated to start in April 2019 in time for Easter.”

Bending also noted that Retail Profile had rebranded in Germany as PoPRetail.de, and had also started pilot projects with HBB group, DI group and JLL in Darmstadt for the provision of RMUs.

“If these pilots are successful we see the potential for another 10 to 15 RMUs being installed throughout the year.”