“CThis type of proposition is very rare in shopping centers.”maintains Roch-Charles Rosier, director of Cap 3000, in Saint-Laurent-du-Var.
In 2021, the center inaugurated its Corso premium, a wing reserved for a more luxurious offering. Has the bet paid off?
A growing foreign clientele
When asked about the closure of the high-end grocery store Fauchon a few months ago, Roch-Charles Rosier explained: “It was a franchise and nationally, it wasn’t going well.”
Nothing to do with a possible lack of dynamism in the Corso. “It works very well”assures the director.
By force? “We don’t do pure luxury, like Hermès or Chanel. Otherwise, we would only target a very small clientele. We do mix and match. Someone looking for Dior, TAG Heuer, Jacobson or Auberi will find what they’re looking for, just like someone looking for Sandro, Zapa, Maje, or Tommy Hilfiger.”
Don’t customers with strong purchasing power prefer to frequent the Croisette, Monaco or Rue Longchamp in Nice? “Many of our customers come from Monaco, Cannes or Nice… But this Corso pleases and also speaks to foreign customers. We offer a service tax free [1]. And soon, the tax & refund. This way, vacationers will be able to spend the money they have saved in the center.”
According to him, the title of most beautiful center in the world awarded by the jury of the Mipim Awards in Cannes last year increased the figures: “12% more foreign customers for a current total of 25%.” And in 2023, “overall attendance at the center increased by 18% compared to 2022.”
He also ensures that certain major brands work better in Cap3000 than in town. “This is the case with Hugo Boss for example.”
And the “big plus”: luxury food. Ladurée, Tayak, Motiko, Ducasse and Lenôtre, “who offered here, exclusively, his brand new concept. Avant Paris.” And Monoprix which “has the same concept as that of the Champs-Élysées.”
Un salon type “showroom”
The premium wing less busy than the rest of the center? Some might think so. But Roch-Charles Rosier defends: “This Corso is a quarter of the attendance.” The average basket? “3,000 euros, compared to 135 euros in the rest of the center.”
To push this luxury offer a little further, Cap3000 plans to open a typical lounge in 2024 showroomin which brands will be able to “present their products, invite their privileged customers.”
This space will include a small meeting room, a bar, a personal shopper, and even a back door, “to leave out of sight”.
Among the new features, the director also announces the arrival of a high-end hairdresser “from Paris”. And who to replace Fauchon?
“The center does not wish to communicate the name at the moment. But it will obviously be a premium brand and it will be installed before Christmas.”
1. Tax-free sales are an exemption from VAT on the price of goods purchased by people passing through France.
Polygone Riviera will rethink its premium offer
The Polygone Riviera shopping center, located in Cagnes-sur-Mer, announced that “the center’s management is currently focusing on the evolution of its shopping offering for 2024 and will rethink its premium offering.”
The center will present its projects “more in detail”, before the end of the year.
It is therefore impossible for the moment to know if the more luxurious part really works, compared to the Primark locomotive. The Printemps brand did not respond to our requests.
Will the recent sale of the Cagnois center, historically owned by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, to the Frey group for 272.3 million euros change the situation?
The new owner wants to reorient the strategy towards “mass market” brands. Or more popular and less luxurious.