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2024’s festive season trade exceeds Flanagan & Gerard’s expectations

The Neighbourhood Square shopping centre in Linksfield, Johannesburg.

Festive season trade exceeded Flanagan & Gerard’s expectations with several of its prominent malls recording significant growth in retail sales and consumer foot traffic further driven by a surge in activity for Black Friday in late November 2024.

The Group’s portfolio features high-end niche community centres and dominant regional shopping centres and when combining retail sales data from November and December 2024, and comparing this with previous years, its portfolio grew on average by 6%, outpacing the consumer inflation rate in 2024 which averaged 4.4%.

When reviewing the individual performance of its retail assets, The Neighbourhood Square in Johannesburg reported 17.7% growth in trading activity during the period.

Flanagan & Gerard’s larger shopping malls in coastal areas also outperformed with Ballito Junction up by 7%, Boardwalk Mall by 9% and the Mall of Mthatha in Limpopo, up by 10%.

These growth numbers indicate that consumers are still eager to spend,” notes the Group. Mall of the North, for example, expanded its tenant offering in 2024 to include new brands like Ariana Luxury Boutique, Steve Madden, Le Creuset, Carrol Boyes, and Freedom of Movement. Ballito Junction, its largest regional mall, also underwent an expansion in 2024 to include Workshop17, Starbucks, Krispy Kreme, Daniel Wellington, Spitz, and others. Existing retailers Ackermans and Tekkie Town increased their retail space at Thavhani Mall, which also saw new brands opening including Levi’s, Refinery, and HomeChoice.

A large chunk of sales generated by these malls during the festive season traditionally came from supermarkets with Flanagan & Gerard’s top-performing tenant, across its portfolio in terms of retail sales, was the Checkers FreshX concept store at Ballito Junction.

Other retail categories that showed the most growth was clothing (particularly for men, kids, and unisex wear), fast food, health and beauty, gifting, and liquor.

Surprisingly, the best performing category was cinemas. Although coming off a low base following a slow recovery post the Covid-19 lockdowns, growth of cinemas at the Group’s malls was nearly 100% in 2024 compared to 2023.

“We suspect that in addition to the return of some good content, which movie house owners and the general public have been patiently waiting for, the growth of cinemas had a lot to do with the seasonal weather, where some parts of the country experienced lots of summer rain,” says Paul Gerard, MD of Flanagan & Gerard.

During November and December 2024, 16.7 million consumer visits were clocked across the shopping mall portfolio compared to 16.5 million in 2023. The popularity of convenient delivery services such as Checkers Sixty60, Woolies Dash, and Pick n Pay ASAP is a contributor to fewer shopping mall visits.

The Group’s objective for 2025 is to forge ahead with new projects that expand its shopping malls and introduce new tenants. The Mall of Mthatha, co-owned with Vukile Property Fund, started its renovation in 2024 which will continue into 2025 with Boardwalk Mall to undergo a mini expansion around the precinct by various stakeholders.