LFRA on Exchange to the US

After three years, the LFRA Overseas Study Tour has officially taken off again.

As trends in retail continue to evolve, it remains paramount that members maintain a clear understanding of consumer values and trends in the marketplace.

This Study Tour was the first opportunity since border closures for members to travel overseas to visit, learn, and meet experts and retailers in the US.

“I found the tour group to be a friendly and welcoming group of professionals,” said Norman Asset Delivery General Manager Ben Norman.

“By taking part in the tour I came away with a much greater appreciation for retail best practice.”

The previous Study Tour was held in September 2019, where members travelled to Almhult (the birthplace of IKEA), Copenhagen and London.

Noticeably, many members implemented or were inspired by what they saw and learnt on the European Study Tour.

This year there were 27 LFRA members on the Overseas Study Tour, with more than half attending the LFRA Overseas Study Tour for the first time.

The contingent, led by Phil Schoutrop, Principal and Sector Lead – Precinct at Buchan and LFRA’s Philippa Kelly and Michelle Wong, travelled across San Francisco, San Jose, and Los Angeles.

The group walked just under 68km this year in the seven days across San Francisco, San Jose, and Los Angeles.

San Francisco and the immediate centers around the “Bay Area” region have come to represent one of the largest and most diverse engines of economic growth and influence in recent times.

San Francisco is home to an array of innovators and Fortune 500 companies including Apple, Chevron, Cisco, Netflix, Salesforce, and Visa.

In addition to Large Format Retail, study tour members were fortunate to visit the Apple Visitor Centre at Silicon Valley on the day of the iPhone 14 release and had a private tour of the expanded LinkedIn campus, organised by Leffler Simes Director Stephen Evans.

The tour started with a walking tour around the Union Square Precinct before members made their way to the CBRE San Francisco Office for meetings and presentations with local industry specialists.

Lendlease ex-pats Matt Kirkwood, Development Director, and Caroline Chanthaporn, Senior Development Manager, spoke with LFRA members about their 20- year master planning and development project with Google across four districts in the San Francisco Bay Area in California.

This briefing was followed by Nick Nichles, Australian Consul-General and Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner.

Mr Nichles provided LFRA members an exclusive overview of the local economic context and Australia’s strategic partnership with the Bay Area.

He also spoke about the alignment of government priorities and how businesses in San Francisco are innovating and looking at ways to solve the “last mile problem” of efficient delivery of retail products to customers.

The first day of the Overseas Study Tour concluded with a brief on the Large Format Retail market in San Francisco with local case studies by CBRE Vice-President and Senior Associate Alex Sagues and Matt Kircher, Executive Vice-President and Managing Director.

Highlights of the following three days in San Francisco included a private guided tour of the RH (Restoration Hardware) gallery at the repurposed Bethlehem Steel Building.

This iconic five-storey building was designed by San Francisco architect Frederick H. Meyer and was once the office of Bethlehem Steel, the manufacturers of the steel sections and parts for the Golden Gate Bridge.

The private guided tour at Bass Pro San Jose was certainly an unforgettable experience, and a tour highlight of many.

Bass Pro Shops is an American privately held retailer specialising in hunting, fishing, camping and other related outdoor recreation merchandise. It is the biggest retailer to hit Silicon Valley since IKEA.

The San Jose store offers a cabin-like experience, bringing the outdoors indoor in a 14,000 sqm building.

This store houses a bowling alley, full-service restaurant, a gift shop, and offers its customers workshops, fishing experiences, and boat sales and servicing.

“A key take out for me from this year’s Overseas Study tour was the inclusion of experience type activities within stores,” said Leffler Simes Director Stephen Evans.

“These activities kept people in the store longer and provided customers an opportunity to experience the product firsthand.”

Tour members visited an array of Large Format Retail and mixed-use centres in San Francisco and San Jose including Lowe’s Home Improvement, Heath Ceramics, Home Depot, RH Marin, Santana Row, and REI Co-op at San Carlos.

The second and final leg of the tour was Los Angeles, America’s second largest city by population (behind New York City).

The itinerary was strategically planned to include a visit to South Coast Plaza, The LAB Anti-Mall, and Tustin Market Place so members could compare their observations and experiences at the three different retail formats.

LFRA members were generously hosted at the FTI Consulting office in Downtown LA by Managing Director Matt Garfield.

Mr Garfield travelled from Chicago to meet the LFRA and has over 14 years’ experience working with Retail and Consumer Product Companies in both executive leadership and strategic consultant capacities.

“If I look back at what I have been talking about most post-trip, it would have to be the shape of the US economy,” commented Mainbrace Constructions Business Development Manager Craig Dunlop.

“Specifically, how businesses in the US are experiencing similar shortfalls to us here in Australia, including the difficulty in obtaining enough good personnel across all sectors.

“I surprisingly enjoyed the chats we had at CBRE and FTI Consulting about the local economy.

“Both CBRE and FTI Consulting had really interesting insights and it was a great opportunity to hear their evaluation and predictions.”

Advanced retail technology was observed at the Amazon Go, Amazon Fresh, and Amazon Style stores.

Members learnt about the harmony of a brick-and-mortar store and an app-based service.

The transformative use of space was a core theme in the LA tour with members visiting the Helms Bakery District, a historic industrial bakery transformed into a mecca of modern furniture and design, and Harbor Freight Tools in Culver City, a former ice-skating rink transformed into a tool and equipment store.

Members also toured three Caruso retail centres namely The Grove, The Americana at Brand, and The Commons at Calabasas.

Each centre had a distinctive design and specific tenant mix but contained elements that were distinctively Caruso.

“The attention to the outdoor landscaping, planting, paving treatments, bins, and seating was definitely something I noticed,” said Mr Evans.

Overall, the tour was another impressionable learning and networking experience delivered by Phil Schoutrop and the LFRA team.

“From my perspective I gained a much greater understanding of the aspiration and challenges facing the Large Format Retail industry,” said Mr Norman.

“By the end of the tour I had a clearer picture of how Norman Asset Delivery can better support the delivery of assets and assist with ESG, building compliance, and the use of smart building technologies.”

 

 

This article is a part of a 10-segment series covering the 2022 LFRA Overseas Study Tour.