Latest / The Retail Podcast / How Place Vendôme Became a Top 3 Luxury Mall in the Middle East | Shane Eldstrom (CEO, United Developers)

Transcript

How Place Vendôme Became a Top 3 Luxury Mall in the Middle East | Shane Eldstrom (CEO, United Developers) · The Retail Podcast

• 0:19
  Hello and welcome back to a wonderful episode in the sunny
• 0:23
  cans French sunshine of the Mappick Expo.
• 0:28
  I'm fortunate enough to be joined by one of the main
• 0:30
  speakers who will be on stage tomorrow.
• 0:32
  Now, as most of the audience knows, I butcher most of the
• 0:36
  introductions that I do. So we'll we'll take this in
• 0:39
  part. I'm working with Shane from CEO
• 0:42
  of United Partners for the Qatari and the French name so.
• 0:46
  United Developers, the owners of Plas Vendo shopping Centre.
• 0:50
  Plas vendo sale Qatar in beautiful Qatar.
• 0:54
  So Shane, the first question, what brings you to the South of
• 0:57
  France and the map pig Expo? What are you going to be talking
• 1:00
  about? Well, it is a conference that
• 1:02
  I've enjoyed coming to for many years, not just because of the
• 1:04
  weather, but also because of the learnings, the innovations and
• 1:08
  the access to some of the global leaders in retail real estate.
• 1:11
  And really, you know, the Middle East has been become a magnet
• 1:15
  for the best in the world. And so we come here, we meet
• 1:18
  them, we learn what's what to do next.
• 1:21
  Oh, fantastic. So if I am correct you have guy
• 1:26
  actually to be fair, let me let me take a step back.
• 1:28
  A lot of retailers that watch the show in the Asia Pacific
• 1:31
  region or in the US or even Europe may sort of lump the
• 1:36
  Middle East rightly or wrongly as one trading market.
• 1:40
  When it's not, it's lots of diverse different areas is would
• 1:44
  you mind just sort of taking us through your like the Qatar
• 1:47
  area, like give us some ideas of the demographics, what's behind
• 1:51
  the success that you've had there?
• 1:52
  Well, I, I think it's, it's fair to lump the Middle East in as a
• 1:55
  single market and then a lot of people that come there will want
• 1:58
  to look at a regional rollout. But each market is very, very
• 2:01
  unique and requires its individual attention.
• 2:03
  Qatar in particular, it's a country of about 3 million
• 2:06
  people. The capital Doha is, you know,
• 2:09
  in preparation for the World Cup that we hosted successfully in
• 2:12
  2022, they built out some of the world's top infrastructure.
• 2:16
  We have more than 20,000 five star hotels, more than 41,
• 2:19
  sorry, 20,000 hotel rooms that are 5 star, 41,000 hotel rooms
• 2:24
  in in total. And it's like kind of like the
• 2:26
  city of the future in so many ways.
• 2:28
  And it's an absolutely lovely place to be.
• 2:30
  But the market is being driven a lot by the local population.
• 2:34
  The local population are some of the wealthiest people in the
• 2:37
  world. And as with every market, they
• 2:39
  have certain unique preferences. How old is the development?
• 2:42
  So open April 15th, 2022, so it's about 3 1/2 years old now
• 2:47
  and you know, as with any new project, it went through its
• 2:50
  growing pains. But in Q1 last year plus Vendome
• 2:53
  actually overtook one of our competitors to be the number 3
• 2:56
  shopping centre for high end fashion in the entire Middle
• 2:59
  East. Wow.
• 2:59
  So we're very happy with that. It's.
• 3:01
  Doing that's incredible. So tell me about if I'm
• 3:03
  potentially thinking about a move to the Middle East, what do
• 3:07
  I need to be thinking about? What makes my transition into
• 3:10
  Qatar? You know that that little bit
• 3:11
  easier. Well, we like to think there's
• 3:13
  not a a lot to think about, just get on board.
• 3:15
  But but reality is there are some unique aspects to it.
• 3:19
  There's some unique logistics, there's unique supply chains and
• 3:21
  there's unique laws around establishing companies and
• 3:24
  things like that. All things that can be solved.
• 3:26
  I in speaking to retailers, they often ask me, you know, can I
• 3:29
  come in to Qatar directly? Am I able to, you know,
• 3:33
  establish a trade licence and operate?
• 3:35
  Absolutely. As with most of the Gulf, the
• 3:37
  local ownership laws that used to require a 51% local partner
• 3:41
  have fallen away and we're doing business directly with with the
• 3:44
  Europeans today and we're really looking forward to doing
• 3:46
  business with many more in Asia today.
• 3:48
  We're seeing a lot of exciting innovations in Korea, China,
• 3:51
  Japan, and we can't wait to welcome them to our project and
• 3:55
  our region. I love the fact that you said
• 3:57
  about innovation. So I'm, I'm really curious.
• 3:59
  You must have such a sort of access to so much data from the
• 4:02
  people that already in the mall. When you look to the next five
• 4:06
  years, what's your vision of retail specifically within your
• 4:09
  development? What, what?
• 4:10
  How do you see the future of retail?
• 4:12
  We, we have a focus on, on the higher end side of things.
• 4:15
  And I think what I'm seeing is it's, it's, it's all about
• 4:18
  service, authenticity and sustainability.
• 4:21
  I think our customers are choosing brands that
• 4:24
  particularly have a voice and a purpose.
• 4:27
  And when I talk about the service, you know, if you go to
• 4:30
  Plas Vendome, you'll find it unbelievable.
• 4:32
  We have 6 valet drop offs for our customers.
• 4:35
  We have little golf carts that drive people around in the
• 4:37
  shopping centre. It's quite large, so wouldn't
• 4:39
  want you to hurt your feet. One of the innovative things
• 4:41
  we're working with one of our partners on right now is
• 4:44
  actually a Victoria lounge, which is actually going to be
• 4:47
  connected to our hotel. And this is going to give you
• 4:49
  access to stylists who will actually, they will, they will
• 4:52
  mine your social media, find out what you like.
• 4:55
  And as you arrive in this lounge, you're going to, you're
• 4:57
  going to have a curated collection of the best of the
• 5:00
  best. I've had the experience myself
• 5:02
  and it's second to none. Oh wow, what does Victoria stand
• 5:05
  for? A.
• 5:06
  Very important customer. OK, all right.
• 5:08
  Instead of a very important person.
• 5:10
  OK, fantastic. I'm conscious that I'm hogging
• 5:12
  up your time. You need to get back into the
• 5:13
  conference. Where can people find out more
• 5:15
  information? Well.
• 5:16
  If they they're welcome to visit us at
• 5:18
  www.uniteddevelopers.qaorplasvendomecatar.com. Fantastic.
• 5:25
  Thank you so much.