Marketplace - Customers and Suppliers
The Group's policy is to treat those who occupy, use and supply its properties with respect and to engage with them as partners.It aims to work closely with its tenants to respond to their needs and their customers' needs, for example, through marketing and safety initiatives at its shopping centres. It also looks to form strong relationships with suppliers and to engage with them on responsible business matters.
The success of these relationships is measured at the operating level. For example, The Mall commissions independent tenant satisfaction surveys annually and SNO!zone conducts regular customer surveys, the results of which are published internally each month. The aim is to listen to feedback received and to maintain or improve customer and tenant satisfaction. So far this has been achieved in line with one of the Group's 2009 objectives.
Approach to health and safety
Three years ago the Group launched its own bespoke health and safety compliance system, MallSafe (now rebranded to C&R Safe),with the aim that all the Group's shopping centres would achieve a standard of excellence in this area. The system has proved a success since its launch and has gained a reputation across the industry. The Group has been awarded the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA) gold award for three consecutive
years. In 2009, 19 centres achieved Gold Award status following their external health and safety audit and two were awarded a score of 100%.
2009 Highlights
In addition to the health and safety achievements explained above, the highlights for 2009 are as follows:
- The Junction has proactively assisted tenants through challenging market conditions by offering rental concessions where tenants have been able to demonstrate that they are struggling with trade.
- The Junction operations team continued to improve safety standards within car parks in order to reduce crime and antisocial behaviour. As in previous years, Park Mark accreditation, a recognised standard awarded by the Association of Chief Police Officers, was achieved by all retail parks. All retail parks have state of the art CCTV which is centrally managed and monitored, to improve safety and security for retailers, consumers and staff.
2010 Priorities
- To continue to monitor customer care levels through focused customer research.
- To launch a selection of best practice initiatives as identified through the C&R Safe audit process.
- To retain the ROSPA Gold Award status.
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