Retail off to a good start in 2014 at Manor West Retail Park

06 January 2014

Manor West Retail Park, the award winning Shopping Centre and Retail Park in Tralee, Co. Kerry has just entered its second year at 100% occupancy; and Shopping Centre Manager, Derek Rusk is forecasting another good year for retail at the Centre in 2014.  The Retail Park, since it first opened in 2001, has consistently been placed in the top three shopping centres nationwide, attracting the best national and international brands, employing over 800 people, and enticing over 90,000 shoppers to the retail park on a weekly basis, a figure that has rose to over 120,000 a week in the run up to Christmas and now that the post-Christmas sales are underway.

Derek Rusk, who has been Centre Manager since the retail park first opened its doors over 12 years ago stated “Footfall has shown a marked increase year on year from late August on, and tenants are already reporting that Christmas 2013 was one of the busiest yet.” 

Adding to the good news retail story, Derek stated “Levels of enquiries for new units and kiosks, as well as promotional spots have increased exponentially since August, and in the month leading up to Christmas three new businesses moved in, increasing footfall even more.  These new additions to the centre are international retailer Claire’s, “Flowers at Manor West”, and one of the new National Driver Licence Service Centres.  All of this bodes well for the future and is giving people more reasons to come and visit the retail park. It has been an extremely challenging time for retail in Ireland but I have seen first-hand a greater spirit of consumer confidence on the ground in the shopping centre and retail park, and 2014 has all the signs so far of being a strong one for us here in Manor West and for Tralee in general.”

The Centre has always kept a very tight rein on managing overheads without compromising on quality, and has one of the lowest levels of service charges in the country.  Even with the low service charge, the Centre strives to work continually to improve the visitors’ experience at the Centre.  This year a Customer Service desk was introduced on the Mall, which acts as both a Tourist Information point for the many holiday makers visiting the region and as a Customer Service desk for the shopping centre itself.  There were more events and activities, including fairs to promote various local charities and voluntary organisations, as well as artisan craft and food producers fair.  This work was also carried on offsite, with tenants and the Manor West Santa visiting the Children’s Ward at Kerry General Hospital.

Derek added “It’s always been so important to us in Manor West, both the team managing the Centre and the tenants that we all adopt a positive attitude. This positivity has been felt by visitors and encourages people to stay longer and to return time and time again.  There is an air that the “heavy lifting” of the past few years is hopefully out of the way and that consumer confidence is creeping back in.  We are seeing this in foot fall and dwell time, and at long last at the tills. We are going into 2014 with a quiet confidence that we haven’t seen in years.”