Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Chris Wilkinson: First Retail Group Managing Director on the opening of the Sylvia Park Ikea

Transcript

Chris Wilkinson: First Retail Group Managing Director on the opening of the Sylvia Park Ikea · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Today. Ike is Big opening eleven o'clock, the car park
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: opening eight point thirty this morning. Apparently, au Can Transports
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: warned of forty minute ques to exit the motorway at
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Mount Wellington, cues of up to an hour to enter
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: the shop's car parks. Chris Wilkinson is with us this
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: morning from Retail First Retail Group. Good morning Chris, Good
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: morning Ryan. Do you reckon this could be a phizzic
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: because we haven't seen the type of interest in retail
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: just over the last wee while that we would like
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: to have seen.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: No, definitely not. This is probably the most anticipated retail
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: opening New Zealand scene.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Do you reckon people will travel from around the country
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: for this.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we already know they are, and you know it's
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: developed a phenomenal following. What do people like? People like difference,
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: They like something that's unique. We hadn't seen anyone knows
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: about Ikia. New Zealand is a well traveled but we
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: haven't had that within reach and now we'd finally come
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: of age. Essentially, how does it perform?
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Ikea in countries like out like Australia.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Are extremely well. It's been very popular. They continue to
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: put stores in and that demand continues to grow.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: I'm told they have five hundred car parks at our care.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Does that sound like enough to you? Does that sound
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: like the right number of car parks for the size
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: of the store.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, good point. But in the old days, of course,
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: people traveled to our kids. Now more and more we've
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: seeing people shopping online. And of course there's great rail
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: and transport connections to Sylvia Park, and that's a key
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: reason of chosen that site.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Is just generally with retail, how important these days is
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: parking because you know, we've had this idea that you
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: rip up car parks and you put in cycle ways,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: and you put in bus lanes and stuff like that,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: which drives people nuts. But the idea is that you
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: will actually get more foot traffic into these areas. You'll
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: get more people into these areas. Does that work? Is
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: that working?
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: Getting a balance right is important in many cases. You know,
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: if you've got good public transport connections, leverage them. City centers,
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: we need to slow people down and better engage them
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: with their with their retail and hospitality environments. But in
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: provincial areas, you know, where you really need that that
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: connection to that wide attachment is Absolutely, you need parking.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Chris Wilkinson, First Retail Group appreciate your time this morning.
• 2:17
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• 2:20
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• 2:20
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• 2:24
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