Leading retail and leisure operators are showing no signs of losing their appetite for more stores across the UK, but their requirements are evolving to respond to better data on customer preferences, the tastes of a new generation of social media savvy shoppers, and the need for click-and-collect space and other innovations.

This week's annual Completely Retail Marketplace and Revo Conference, held at London's Old Billingsgate Market, was attended by in excess of 2,000 delegates and saw a strong turnout from the UK's leading retail and leisure names, as well as a clear increase in new entrants, particularly in food and beverage, leisure and electric charging hubs.

The major names taking booths and handing out brochures with updated site requirements included M&S, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrison, Subway, McDonald's, Burger King, Greggs, Aldi, Lidl, Tesco, Travelodge, Starbucks, Costa and Pure Gym.

At its stand, M&S explained that its much publicised rationalisation of its UK stores portfolio was increasingly working on a "town-by-town" basis rather than a blanket strategy, thanks to a more sophisticated understanding of its customers' needs.

Since 2019 it has been reworking its store estate as part of its "Never the Same Again" programme. This has involved closing historic stores that no longer work in terms of the space and location and opening better formatted new stores, rotating the estate by reworking full-line stores selling clothing, home and food to bigger foodhall concept stores.

It has introduced third-party clothing brands into its stores, such as Jaeger and Clarks, contributing to a rebound in the performance of the clothing and home areas of the business. M&S has opened 107 food stores and 12 full-line stores since 2016.

The group says better data on customer behavior which is able to show shifting patterns in shopping, particularly from its Sparks shopper cards, is feeding into these decisions. Compared with two years prior for instance, 2021/22 M&S food sales on retail parks were up 23.3%, while food sales in city centre stores were down 18.4%.

It also wants to get closer to customers. In 2020, 63% of the population was a 10-minute drive from an M&S food store and 84% were a 15-minute drive it says. It wants to be within a 15-minute drive for 90% and has 100 new stores in its pipeline in response. It is increasing its average food sales area from 7,500 square feet to 15,000 square feet.

M&S is also working to target sites vacated by department stores for its full line stores, which are typically between 80,300 square feet and 115,000 square feet, and located in shopping centres and retail parks.

The town-by-town strategy means M&S has been taking different approaches across the country. In Liverpool, the business has recently relocated from its 120,000 square feet store on Church Street in the city centre.
It has, however, stayed in the centre of the city, moving to around 100,000 square feet in the former Debenhams department store in the Liverpool One shopping centre, anchoring South John Street.

In Chesterfield, it has relocated from its long-term city centre store to a major new store out-of-town on Ravenside Retail Park.

BKUK, the master franchise joint venture formed by Restaurant Brands International and Bridgepoint in 2017 to build the Burger King brand in the UK, was at the conference saying it wants to open 40 restaurants a year, adding hundreds by 2026. As a brand, Burger King is operating 542 restaurants in the UK, with BKUK owning 277 of them.

It is advised by Metis in the North West and Midlands, Lunson Mitchenall in the South, EYCO in Scotland, Morgan Williams nationally, Barker Proudlove in the North East and Savills in Scotland. The business wants leasehold or freehold sites of 1,500 to 3,000 square feet on retail parks and on the high street, and in particular drive thru sites.

Supermarket giant Tesco is looking for new store opportunities of 2,500 square feet to 7,000 square feet for its Tesco Express smaller format stores, with a focus on neighbourhood, high street, student locations or housing growth areas.

Rival Morrisons is looking nationally and offering 'market leading agents fees' for sites of 2,500 square feet to 4,000 square feet for its Morrisons Daily stores. Former pubs are among the locations it is considering.

Subway and Costa are both battling it out for sites. Subway says its requirements are for 'Class E' usage of 500 square feet to 2,000 square feet, adding that it has an "adaptable approach" to store layout that does not require grills or fryers.

Budget hotel group Travelodge said it is looking at development opportunities in over 300 locations across the UK, either as standalone hotels or as part of mixed-use schemes. It takes new 25-year FRI leases with no breaks.

What was notable at the event was the increase in new concepts with ambitious requirements, often having started online and via dark kitchens during the pandemic, before spinning into physical locations.

Fried chicken chain Sides had its own booth. It opened a first two restaurants in food courts at Wembley Boxpark and Croydon Boxpark, after originally opening for delivery only in late 2021. It has also now opened a first shopping centre restaurant at Dudley's Merry Hill and earlier this year announced plans for a further 10 locations in 2023.

Chris Palmer, group development director at Sides backer Hero Brands, said the it wants to quickly grow to 20 restaurants with the typical size of 2,000 square feet.

Other than the quality of the chicken, Sides' point of difference is that, alongside part owner Virtual Hero Group, a subsidiary of German Doner Kebab and Island Poke owner Hero Brands, it is led by the Sidemen, the British YouTube group with 137 million subscribers and including internet personalities KSI, Miniminter, Zerkaa, TBJZL, Behzinga, Vikkstar123, and W2S.

The group's popularity with young people, or Millennials and Generation Z, as Sides puts it, is proving a strong selling point for the chicken its Sidemen are endorsing, with their involvement critical to the initial delivery-only success.

Sides says its restaurants will create an "immersive space", where customers can create their own meal "content" as well as watching "activations" and events led by the Sidemen. The point that will not be lost on landlords is the Sidemen's social media popularity can drive footfall to locations at the drop of a post. Sides claims to be the second most followed chicken food brand in the UK already with 350,000 followers on Instagram.

A theme of the conference is the power of social media in building a retail brand to the point where it requires physical space.

Another example is Ghost Burgers, a London burger group focused on serving up Wagyu beef and stylish innovations, such as transparent pouches for its drinks. Co-founder Zubuyr Patel explains that the business launched in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 from a dark kitchen in Bethnal Green in east London, speedily "going viral" on TikTok and other platforms, and garnering five-star Deliveroo and Uber delivery ratings.

It then opened a first restaurant in Hoxton and the success of that has led it to opening in Gants Hill. Patel says it is now seeking E class spaces of 1,500 to 2,000 square feet in major UK thoroughfares, such as London's Oxford Street and Edinburgh's Princes Street, as well as airports.

Another ambitious new UK entrant is Swedish "sharing box" retail group Ihopa. The group offers 'shared access' to products for home and leisure, which it says means members can use products when they need them and return them, rather than "storing them in a basement" at their homes.

In return for a monthly fee, members are able to book 25-plus products "anytime and as often as they wish".

Alexander Engl, CEO at iHopa, says what he calls the "access economy" is going to change retail in the way ecommerce has.

"Analysts forecast that 20% of retail will shift towards access services within the next decade. This is a similar shift like the one to ecommerce in the 2010s. And, similar to those days, most consumer brands and retailers are not on the forefront or even ready for it."

Starting in Scandinavia, ihopa has been building a network of self-service sharing boxes where brands such as Bosch, Kärcher, Husqvarna, Gardena are already showcasing products. Engl wants to speak to landlords across the UK about housing the boxes.

Engl was speaking in the conference's "Soapbox" area where new businesses have the chance to pitch their concepts and requirements. The area is refreshingly populated by credible-sounding and ambitious entrepreneurs, often with a history of success in other geographies.

Zambrero, an Australian Mexican fast-food franchise restaurant chain that has 245 sites across Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and America, is now speedily expanding its modern take on burritos in the UK. That is being propelled by backing from Metric Capital Partners and has an initial focus on finding sites of between 800 and 1,600 square feet in central London, Manchester and Birmingham.

Advised by Street Property Consultants, its strapline is "feel good mex" and it promises that every time a burrito or bowl is bought at the chain it donates a meal to someone across the globe in need.

The good news for these ambitious operators is the leading landlords and advisers were listening hard to what they are saying about their space needs at the conference. British Land, Landsec, Capital & Regional, Hammerson, the Crown Estate, Grosvenor and pretty much every other leading retail property owner name was in attendance and holding meetings with aspirant tenants.