Whatshot
La Lucia Mall Festive Season a huge success despite load shedding
La Lucia Mall Festive Season a huge success despite load shedding
"Despite being load shedded eight times, resulting in the loss of approximately three trading days during December 2014, many La Lucia Mall retailers are reporting turnovers in excess of 20% and in some cases tenants are reporting turnovers that are a whopping 50% to 200% up on 2013. Numbers are still coming in so we haven't got the full picture yet but it is looking extremely positive", said centre Manager Vanessa Blevins.
The Mall's foot traffic flat-lined but would have grown had we not lost three trading days to load shedding, with 637 074 shoppers visiting the Mall during December 2014. This however does not seem to have affected sales and I anticipate when all the numbers are in La Lucia Mall will probably end up showing 20% overall growth for the season. Anchor tenants Woolworths and Dischem were up by double-digit figures and several coffee shops reported turnovers of 20% greater than December 2013. Cape union Mart group which includes brands Cape Union Mart, Old Khaki and their new store Poetry preformed outstandingly at the Mall. High-end watches, fine and custom jewellery, Smartphone's, tablets and gadgets, kitchenware and sunglasses were all top-selling items, but basically every category of retailer did well this season" said Ms Blevins.
Cindine Smith Marketing Manager said, "The SPCA raised a massive R49 000 with their Tree of Love and further R24 000 from the Art Givers art exhibition. CHOC were inundated with requests for wrapping so much so that we ran out of wrapping paper just days before Christmas and had to scramble around the whole of Durban to buy more to cope with the high demand.
Ms Blevins said that the Mall's success this season could be attributed to the best tenant mix in years, a festive but safe shopping environment and several new upgraded restaurants and coffee shops all of which coped very well with the increased demand on their resources.
La Lucia Mall center management team: Patricia Zama, Customer Care Consultant, Wayne Shelley Operations Manager, Vanessa Blevins, Centre Manager, Charis Charlton, Property Administrator, Pamela Hira, Customer Care Supervisor, Cindene Smith Marketing Manager and Andreas Msomi, Maintenance Supervisor