Utrecht: More than just a retail shopping precinct

On this year’s Overseas Study Tour, LFRA members were led by Phil Schoutrop, Principal and Sector Lead at Buchan and the LFRA’s Philippa Kelly and Michelle Wong, across the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium, to observe Large Format Retail and the European market.

This article is one of a ten-part series in which Unwrap will unpack some of the key insights and learnings that were drawn from the trip regarding innovation, trends, and technologies across the European retail sector.

In the Netherlands, on the outskirts of Utrecht, the team visited a large IKEA shopping precinct that was uniquely integrated within its community.

Utrecht being the 4th largest city in the Netherlands, has enormous growth of 94% in the area, currently with 350,000 inhabitants and a projected 450,000 within the next three years.

And although 31% of the population in Utrecht do not own a vehicle, most shoppers at this precinct come by car and leave the bikes at home.

Utrecht interestingly also has an incredibly high percentage of females in its demographic due to the local University in which the courses that are offered are dominated by female students.

As this IKEA store is the largest within the Netherlands, it had strict instructions imposed by the local government when applying to extend the precinct to 22,000 sqm, which would impede on the local football fields in the area.

This is why the local government provided the conditions on the development to include two large football fields on the roof of the precinct, where parking would normally be situated.

The football fields, which are owned by the local sporting associations, are unique and have been executed with light layers for water storage instead of a traditional heavy package, between the roof deck and synthetic turf top layer.

Unlike other IKEAs across Europe which may include smaller stores with categorised products or rooms, the Netherlands predominantly has larger stores which will include the entire range of home improvement products.

The entire shopping precinct encompasses 65 home improvement stores, which means it is the largest offering in the centre of the Netherlands.

The precinct attracts five million visitors a year and provides over 1,900 local jobs, with 70% of visitors coming out of the Utrecht catchment area which reaches up to a 50km radius.

All tenants are also obliged to pay a fee which is then put towards local improvement within the shopping precinct.

This is due to its fractured ownership, which means that the contribution fund is put towards marketing and business improvement, as well as investment in the local space by local government.

The precinct also relies heavily on visitor feedback to guide its investment, including conducting a survey last year to ask visitors where they would like to see investment and further improvement focussed.

From this survey, it was revealed that visitors supported further investment in hospitality areas in the precinct and more green public space.

Another example of the precinct seeking local advice to guide investment is when IKEA engaged students at the local Utrecht University to drive a recently launched ‘co-worker co-creation’ campaign.

The students were able to apply their local knowledge of the area, alongside their theoretical knowledge from their coursework and to improve the global co-creation campaign to gather innovative ideas from employees across all functions.

The precinct continues to strive for local investment from the local government, and importantly provide critical advice on the surrounding infrastructure as the area continues to experience rapid growth.

This article is part of a ten-part series relating to the LFRA Overseas Study Tour 2023.