Australians have returned to brick-and-mortar stores in droves. Retail sales rose to a new record level of $34.67 billion in July, reveals the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Scentre Group, the owner of over 40 Westfield shopping centres nationwide, has reported $12 billion in sales for the first six months of 2022. An increase of $800 million on the first six months of 2021 and $500 million up on the pre-pandemic first half of 2019.
I am very pleased with these results, said Peter Allen, CEO of Scentre Group.
“Our teams continued to drive our business and deliver strong operational performance. We’ve grown customer visitation, portfolio occupancy, rental income and cash collection resulting in a strong profit growth in the first half.”
In addition to increased sales, Scentre Group posted an operating profit of $540.5 million – up 17.5 per cent compared to the first six months of 2021.
Westfield Plus, Scentre Group’s membership program, continued to prove a winner. Membership has swelled to 2.75 million – up 550,000 members since the start of the year.
Westfield Direct, the aggregated Click and Collect service, which debuted last October is also growing strongly.The majority of customers preferring to use the service at their local Westfield centre.
From January to June, Scentre Group completed 1579 lease deals, which included 585 new merchants and 108 new brands.
Beauty and personal services are linchpins and major drawcards of the Westfield centre network in all states.
Core clients include Aesop, Aveda, David Jones, Myer, Ella Bache, Chanel, L’Occitane, Lush, Sephora, Mecca, Mecca Maxima, M.A.C, Christian Dior, Priceline, Jurlique, innisfree and Laser Clinics Australia.