What insights have you gained from the experience of collaborating with Atterbury Europe over the past year? In your opinion, what are the highlights of teams from such different backgrounds working together?
Since the market is getting more global every day, it is very important to receive external insights about new business models and new trends. Even though MPC Properties has a global culture and is constantly screening the global business scene, it is not the same as being involved daily in different territories. Our partner Atterbury Europe is giving us a good mix of the South African business culture of entrepreneurship combined with their extended field experience in Cyprus and Romania.

The global pandemic has presented a particular challenge to the retail environment. Do you think the experience will have lasting effects on the way malls are conceptualized and managed in terms of customer experience?
In my opinion, the pandemic didn’t bring a totally new perspective to the malls, but rather pushed and accelerated the changes which had already started. Shopping centres have always been safe places in all aspects, but it was not known and recognized enough from the perspective of the customers and the authority. We made a mistake in the past by not emphasizing and communicating it enough. This topic will remain important from now on and even after the end of the pandemic, and this is why we have decided to obtain the Well (well-being and health) certification for our entire portfolio. The second aspect is about the necessity to increase experience and comfort of the customers by offering vast open-air areas in our malls – this is important as the answer to health concerns, but also for the overall customer experience.

Widespread lockdowns boosted e-commerce, and got shoppers used to shopping online, which competes with brick-and-mortar shopping centres. Do you think that e-commerce presents an additional opportunity for traditional assets to expand their offering, to also benefit from this new development?
Effectively, the lockdowns boosted e-commerce, but at the same time, it also revealed the actual limits of the model. Retailers realised that only digital is not viable without the support of physical retail. Despite the volume, e-commerce is striving to simply reach profitability and sustainably increase the number of new customers. Retailers now want to use the malls for both activities through implementation of in-store warehouse stock management, proximity logistic centres, click and collect, return points, showrooms… This “phigital” new model is boosting both business models due to synergies, but also the overall increase of market size. In fact, both models are complementary and the new challenge for malls and retailers is to achieve the best fusion.

How did you sustain tenant relationships and ensure longevity of tenants in a year with multiple lockdowns and trading restrictions?
We tried to support our tenants as best we could during this tough time by using all possible tools –from the rent-free periods to discounts and payment plans. Our support was with no comparison to any support that we could have received ourselves. It represented a real investment and a very big effort, which shows our commitment to ensure the sustainability of our business model and business of our partners.

As we move into 2022, what is your prediction for the year ahead – in what shape is the Serbian retail landscape now, and what are you putting in place for a positive retail year?
We believe that 2022 will be a good year and we can already feel it from this year-end performance indicators. Footfall is still below 2019 levels, but turnovers are already higher from time to time. We are lucky in Serbia to be in one of the markets that suffered less from lockdowns and restrictions, so the economy remains strong in general, which has a positive effect on malls. However, this is not enough, and we need to remain proactive and boost this positive environment. Therefore, we have just launched our loyalty application and we are already working on the full integration of the digital market into the malls, while permanently searching for structural or conceptual improvements. For all these reasons, this new year should be marked by the revival of the brick-and-mortar model fuelled by strong customer revenge shopping.