CANAL Walk is continuing to grow and is on track to show a turnover growth in excess of 35% for its second year of trading, strongly outperforming the South African retail sector generally.
Latest figures from Statistics SA show that retail sales in South Africa grew by 11.7% for the year to July 2002 while, according to the Bureau for Economic Research (BER) in Stellenbosch, retail sales in the Western Cape grew 9.5% in the fourth quarter of last year, rising to 10% in the first quarter of 2002 and 11.3% in the second quarter of this year.
While official statistics for third-quarter retail sales are not yet available, the BER's latest survey results suggest that sales volumes improved further during the third quarter of 2002 but are unlikely to come anywhere close to matching the growth shown by Canal Walk, says Mickey Radowsky, managing director of Canal Walk Ltd, the company which owns the shopping centre.
Canal Walk, which celebrates its second birthday today, beat its first year trading target of R1 billion and all indications were that the centre would comfortably exceed a gross turnover of more than R1.35bn for the 12 months to end October 2002, he said.
'It will be difficult to replicate this level of growth going forward and to a large extent growth prospects in the medium term will depend on what happens to interest rates. However, barring any unforeseen catastrophes, I am optimistic Canal Walk will continue to show growth in excess of 20% per annum for the foreseeable future,' he said.
Radowsky said Canal Walk, which is the largest shopping centre in South Africa, was currently 89% let with 111 000m2 of the total 125 000m2 of retail space occupied.
Publisher: Weekend Argus
Source: Weekend Argus
