Outlet centers in the European marketplace

By

Matthieu Guinebault

Published
Sep 5, 2013

Ecostra just published the 2013 edition of its report “Outlet Centres in Europe,” which provides an overview of all of Europe’s designer outlet centers. Freely available on Ecostra’s website, the report notes the differences among the various national markets.

The document points out the saturation in the British market, which developed based on a model similar to that of the United States. This resulted in a generation of outlets that suffered from their less productive concepts or locations with weaknesses, when faced with newer and more attractive properties.

By contrast, Germany remains a country with few outlet centers because of restrictive legislation relating to their development. According to Ecostra, there is little doubt that this situation will change in the short or medium term. Still, “the kind of emotional argument that often used to take place until just a few years ago has now given way to a much more factual discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of establishing an Outlet Center.”

With respect to Italy, it is currently pursuing such rapid growth in terms of outlet offerings that it has become difficult to find “white spots” on the country’s map.

This same phenomenon of rapid growth can be seen farther North, in the Swiss and Austrian markets. As for the Central and Eastern European nations, the accelerated rate of development seen previously has now been slowed as a direct result of the financial crisis of 2008.

An instructive resource, “Outlet Centres in Europe” lists every European outlet center, whether open, closed or under development, according to country, size and location. Detailed remarks are provided as to the development and activity of the most notable situations.