Interested in Retail store

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dingdong

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Hi

I am looking advice on buying retail , in Poland or Budapest or any of cheaper european cities.

We are looking to sell our product in these locations. The location would have to be in a good area to attract higher value spender.

Any websites or esate agent contacts.
 
Hello dingdong,

Could you tell me more about the product you want to sell in Budapest, for instance?

When we know what you want to sell it, I would give you some advice where to buy a retail in Budapest.
 
If its a high-end product, try leasing a unit from Autoker in the Madach project in Budapest. Otherwise, depends on the product etc.
 
auto,

I would suggest dingdong find a retail in prime business location such as Vorosmarty ter (new complex: office, retail and residential), Andrassy ut (between Octogon and Deak ter), Vaci u (between Ferenciek tere and Vorosmarty ter), Deak Ferenc utca (Fashion street). Further, Mammut and Westend shopping centers would be also a good idea if retail space were available.

Kiraly utca and its area are not well developed yet. But we do not know what dingdong wants to sell it here in Budapest.

Anyway location should be prime.
 
dingdong,

Did you progress any further with this idea?

My retail contact in Jones Lang La Salle suggests that most international retailers tend to go to Poland before Hungary, because of the huge population difference. Although Warsaw has a smaller population than Budapest, there are five other cities in Poland with a population larger than 500,000. After Budapest, the next biggest city is Debrecen, which has a population of only 200,000, so expansion opportunities in Hungary are rather limited. (Of course this may not hugely concern you just yet, but it's an important fact to be aware of and one, which is of huge concern to most retailers).

As far as I remember, your brand is in the luxury clothing retail category, which has yet to really take off in Budapest. Louis Vuitton was the first international luxury retailer to set up in this country, next to the opera house. Max Mara and Hugo Boss have been here for a few years on Deak Ferenc utca, but are under Hungarian ownership and are not really in the same league. Luxury clothing retailers probably wont want to set up on Vaci utca or in any of the shopping centres. Instead, they tend to prefer to bunch together. A lot depends on if another larger international company such as Chanel comes to Hungary. If they do and they also open an outlet close to Louis Vuitton, then it's very likely that this area of the city will develop as a luxury clothing retail hub. However, it's also possible that if Louis Vuitton were to exit from the Budapest market, then it's all up in the air again and competitors would more than likely think twice before coming here. It's an industry, which is in its very early stages in Hungary.
 
Thanks Budapest

I also believe Poland is better potential, it seems quite hard to find agents selling property in poland. So still looking or any helpers out there
 
It all depends on the product. Hungary would sustain more high-end buyers; poland maybe for volume at a lower price point.

Look at the West End centre in Budapest and see the volumes being done there at pretty much Irish prices. Plenty of money at the upper end in Hungary, and several good locations for selling still available.
 
Some of the highest end stores are already present in large numbers in Polish cities, and some of the shopping centres would rival Dundrum (e.g. Stary Browar in Poznan). There are 5 million mid-high net worth Polish people in the population of 38 million; to suggest that "high volume, lower price points" would not be suitable for Poland is off the mark.
 
West End, Arkad, Mammuth, etc. just don't have stores of a sufficient size at the minute to cater for large international retailers. Zara for example would like to move/extend to West End, but there is no space for them at present. Poland has much larger shopping centres and much better potential to expand to smaller cities, so it's more likely that most international retailers will locate here before Hungary.

The existing larger Hungarian shopping centres tend to attract mid-range retailers, while luxury international retailers are more likely to group together in a more prestigious location. Andrassy ut, close to the opera house would seem to be the most likely location of a future luxury retail district, but it all depends on what Louis Vuitton's plan is and also if any other significant international retailers come to Bp.

Luxury international retailers are less likely to want to expand outside of a capital city and because of its larger population, higher tourist numbers and higher spending power, Budapest is more likely to develop this sector more quickly than Warsaw. However, there are many unknown variables as it's a very new sector in both Hungary and Poland.
 
I am now in Dublin and I have seen shopping centres and shopping streets. If I made a comparison between Budapest and Dublin I would say Budapest is more expensive and well-developped in terms of shopping. For instance Chanel is here but I do not think Irish are strongly interested in Chanel than Hungarians would be. Further, luxury brands are in Wien which is around 3 hours from Budapest. This is the main reason why Budapest is not the main target of luxury products. What is more, the Hungarian buyers of luxury brands are snob people who like to go shopping to Paris, Wien, Rome, London, New York. In Hungary, it is cool if you say: I was in Paris last weekend and did shopping in Dior and Chanel than I was in WestEnd on walked around Andrassy.

If we are talking about luxury brands, we should talk about buyers/market first. We need to know them before doing any action.

Finally, there is a top-class shopping villa in district 2 where you can order luxury products from personal shop assistants:

- you need to arrange an appointmet by phone first
- and then they will be waiting for you
- you will get a personal assistant who manage the purchasing process especially for you (depending on which brand you are interested in: car, jewelery/wathes, cloths, prestige schools in Switzerland, England)
- all assistants are well trained and they know everything about the particular product/service

As far as I know this shopping villa is popular between reach Hungarians as well foreigners who live in Hungary.

Plus additional information:

- Fashion street (Deak Ferenc u. between Vorosmarty ter and Deak Ferenc ter) is developping very well

- new small shopping centre (from end 2008) in Vorosmarty ter is also a good targeting for prestige brands

- Andrassy ut (between Octogon and Deak Ferenc ter) is also known as new targeting of prestige brands

Supporting to budapest's idea that Luis Vitton will attract more and more prestige brand to Budapest is absolutely true. I can confirm that a couple of prestige brands will open branches in Andrassy shortly. These brands are not clarifed yet because information is not public. What is known that French and Italian brands are coming.

Current shopping centres like WestEnd are 100% occupied. It is almost impossible to get a retail for rent there because demand there is much much higher than elsewhere in the City. Mango, for instance, rent is the biggest retail there which is about 200 m2 + utility spaces.

Zara came to Budapest 2-3 years ago but WestEnd was opened end 1999. In Budapest, well located shopping centres go very well and always rented.

When we want to launch a luxury pruduct we need to know the size of market which is not always in accordance with size of country. If we had a look at Poland, we would see that luxury market there would be not significantly higher just because Poland is four times bigger than Hungary. Austria size is very similar to Hungary but luxury market is x times bigger than the Hungarian's one. Last but not least, reach people in small countries are happy to go shopping in big Cities. I mean reach hungarians go to Budapest therefore, we need to talk about about luxury market as a one concentrated and not a segregeted market by cities.

Anyway, it would be great to know exactly what we are talking about because luxury means something special (handmade, experience, design, prestige, used materials, age, reputation) and not just expensive!
 
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