#Indi2016 - Ellandi Pledges to 365 Days of Independent Retailers
Posted by Ellandi on 8th Jan 2016
There have been a number of very
successful national campaigns in support of Independent Retailers such as
“Independents Day” organised by The Independent Retailers Confederation and
“Small Business Saturday” – both of which run for a single day each year, however
leading Community Shopping Centre investor Ellandi has taken this one step
further by marking 2016 as its #Indi2016 year.
Property Director Mark Robinson
commented “If it's good enough for Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook to make a New Year’s
resolution to make a difference, then it's good enough for Ellandi too, so we
have pledged to promote a different independent retailer from our portfolio of
29 shopping centres every day of 2016.”
Ellandi will be promoting these High
Street heroes across its social media channels in support of the efforts of
each shopping centre locally.
Robinson added “Independent retailers
make up approximately 30% of our retail tenants by number across the portfolio;
these are established and run by local people who play a key role in supporting
our goal of creating community centred retail destinations and deserve to be
celebrated.”
“Independent retailers reflect the best
of Great British entrepreneurship, creating places with a sense of individual
identity that cannot ever be repeated online or in soulless destinations. We will be featuring hundreds of great
examples from Falkirk to St Austell across our £1bn portfolio.”
The campaign which started on the 1st
January has already seen a number of positive responses on social media.
D&A Toys, featured tenant at
Pentagon Shopping Centre, Chatham commented on Facebook:
“Thanks Ellandi for
putting the spotlight on the nation’s sometimes overlooked independent
retailers! It is much appreciated and we look forward to working with you in
2016 and beyond.”
Sabri Marsaoui, Head of Property
Consultancy at Sarah Piddington Consulting Limited commented on Linkedin
“It's
a shame more Landlords don't adopt a similar leasing strategy allowing local
businesses the opportunity to thrive.”
Ian Purvis of Porterfield PR commented
on Twitter
“Well done @ellandi_llp on #indi2016. What a great initiative”.
#Indi2016 is just one way that Ellandi has
supported independent retailers recently. The community shopping centre
investors have run #Winashop competitions which have awarded retail units free
of rent & rates, in conjunction with mentoring from local businesses, in
Nailsea & Bootle and have encouraged initiatives such as “Indy on 3”, a
specialist independent marketplace in Falkirk.
In addition, an investment of £1.5
million in Stockton’s Castlegate Shopping Centre created a newly refurbished
Market Hall to encourage 26 independent retailers to thrive again in this
traditional market town.
Further investment and initiatives to
support independent retailers are planned over the next twelve months.