A luxury shoe brand is closing its store in the struggling Bon Accord centre as a new report shows that shopping mall footfall has hit a slump.
The Kurt Geiger store is expected to shut on 17 December with the loss of four jobs.
It is uncertain if the store chain, which is owned by private equity company Cinven, will reopen in another Aberdeen location. It has over 70 UK stores and 170 concessions in bigger stores.
The company has been asked for comment.
Bon Accord was put into administration and is currently thought to be in a sale process after bids closed last month.
Bon Accord declined to comment on the closure but centre manager Craig Stevenson was bullish about current trading: “There has been a real festive buzz in Bon Accord as footfall continues to build significantly.
“Santa’s Workshop has seen thousands of delighted families visit since opening in early November.”
Shopper numbers up but still not recovered from Covid
Shopper numbers in Scotland have slumped by 15% in November compared to pre-pandemic levels, new figures show.
The data for the month shows the number of people visiting shopping centres was down by more than a quarter (27.6%) compared to the same month in 2019.
The report by the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) compares traffic numbers to 2019 as the years since have been affected by lockdowns during the pandemic.
However there was some cheer as SRC found overall footfall levels in Scotland have increased when compared to last year, which was affected by Covid.
It said high street visitor numbers increased by 15.9%, while the number visiting shopping centres was up 23%.
These figures were in line with those reported by shopping centres in the north and north-east.
Inverness and Aberdeen shopping malls fight back
Jackie Cuddy, the manager of the Eastgate Shopping Centre in Inverness said footfall has not recovered from the 2019 heyday but that sales were “outperforming”.
“We are finding that sales are still outperforming footfall. November v 2019 was -23% so slightly better than the Scottish average.
“Our November figures were up on October. However last week we were only -16% on 2019 so it is looking like Christmas has started which is encouraging. This is the strongest variance we have had since Covid.”
Meanwhile, Kenneth Bruce operations manager for the Trinity Shopping Centre in Aberdeen said visitor numbers of 362,986 was a 9% increase month on month and up 23.5% year on year.
He added the recent Black Friday weekend saw a combined footfall of 65,978.
He added: “We are hoping to continue that positive growth into December as we see our shoppers continue to return to the centre.”
Footfall data ‘dreich and worrying’
With November usually a busy period for retailers in the run-up to Christmas, the SRC branded the figures “dreich and worrying”.
The 15% decline in footfall in Scotland compared to 2019 levels is worse than the UK-wide drop of 13.3%.
David Lonsdale, director of the SRC, said shopper footfall at Scotland’s retail centres “shrivelled” last month in contrast with the same period prior to the pandemic.
It reinforces the need for Government to prioritise supporting the industry in the upcoming Scottish budget by committing to at least freeze business rates for next year…”
– Scottish Retail Consortium director David Lonsdale
He said: “Visits to stores were 15% down on pre-pandemic trading, the weakest performance since March, led by large falls in visits to shopping centres.
“This will disappoint retailers who were hoping for a lift during what is traditionally the second busiest trading month of the year.
“These are dreich and worrying figures for Scotland’s retailers, many of whom are hoping for a good Christmas to help weather ever-increasing costs and tide them over the traditionally leaner months early in the new year.
“It reinforces the need for Government to prioritise supporting the industry in the upcoming Scottish budget by committing to at least freeze business rates for next year, whilst thinking twice about regulatory policies which would add cost or curtail investment in the industry, including the recently announced changes to the planning system.”
Conversation