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The biggest challenge facing the F&B industry is the cost of doing business. While the coronavirus has run its course through the markets, operators are struggling to return to profitability in the face of current economic challenges. Ian Hanlon, Director of Coverpoint, explains how the current challenges can be addressed and highlights trends in the shopping center food scene using best practice examples from the industry.

The F&B sector has changed significantly in recent years, not only in terms of the size of the market, but also in the variety and quality of the offering. As rents continue to rise in Europe, space previously dominated by fashion retailers is now being occupied by trendy gastronomic restaurants. People have evolved from collecting “things” to collecting “experiences”, and shopping centers have adapted to this change by improving and expanding their gastronomic offerings. Food and beverage (F&B) will play an even more crucial role in the success of retail real estate.

In this in-depth management interview, Yurdaer Kahraman, CEO and Board Member of FİBA Commercial Properties, not only spoke about the current global developments taking place at his company, but also about the opportunities in the Turkish market, why Turkish brands are expanding so successfully in Europe, the Middle East, as well as in the MENA region, and about his recent experiences in China. His advice: Now, more than ever, it is time to look towards Asia.

Retail property revitalization and valuation is a complex process that aims to increase a property’s value and make it more attractive to retailers and customers. HBB sheds light on the various aspects of this process, including analyses, costs, steps, success factors, and necessary partners. A site-specific approach is elementary, as the Rathaus Galerie Essen example shows.

There is a collective push within shopping centers to preserve the planet, says Jean Carlos Delgado, Marketing and Brand Director at HyperIn. In this guest article, he uses case studies to explain how eco-friendly evolution can take place.

As a participant and contributor to the world of hospitality for over 30 years, Will Odwarka shares in this column insights, thoughts, and concepts that represent the contemporary challenges of our industry either as part of a retail environment or as standalone operations. He will do this without sugarcoating and superficial bumper sticker statements.

The European shopping center market overvalues design and investment but needs to pay more attention to atmosphere, interaction, and service, says Will Odwarka. This hurts the centers and especially their gastronomy section. The founder and CEO of Dubai-based Heartatwork Hospitality Consulting explains in his conversation with ACROSS editor Reinhard Winiwarter why excellent, personable service is the prerequisite for everything in the field of gastronomy.

While the mood in Central and Western Europe’s retail sector is dominated by “gray clouds”, center developers and operators from the SEE and CEE regions are in a completely different situation. In an interview with ACROSS Publisher Reinhard Winiwarter, Rüdiger Dany, CEO of NEPI Rockcastle, explains his 700 million development pipeline, how NEPI is profiting from ESG, and in which regard the West can learn something from the East.

“Shopping centers shape the city’s identity and, at best, pay dividends for the municipality’s image,“ states Uwe Seidel. The Managing Partner at Dr. Lademann & Partners on the role of shopping centers for society and what tools are essential to monitoring these changes within the respective community.

“The whole industry needs to prepare to be relevant for the unforeseeable future,” states Peter Tonstad, CEO of Placewise, in his latest PropTech column. According to him, shopping centers have the opportunity to do better by their local communities, by simply “doing good”. Introducing digital solutions is a very helpful tool to do so.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the European retail sector has been experiencing one crisis after another. As the pandemic faded, consumers and retailers finally hoped for relief, but the war in Ukraine immediately followed, causing further crises.