Scentre Group announces double digit growth and more Westfield revamps, gender pay gap for women in retail worsens, inside the mind of the beauty enthusiast, and the death of the signature scent.
Scentre Group announces double digit growth and more Westfield revamps
Strong sales across health and beauty, jewellery, food retail and technology pushed Scentre Group's net profit for 2016 to $2.99 billion – a jump of 10.4 per cent. The company operates Westfield shopping centres nationwide and also reported a spike of 2.6 per cent in comparative sales to a very healthy average of $11,203 per square metre in the second half of the year.
The major redevelopment of Westfield Warringah Mall and North Lakes were two significant highlights of the past 12 months and Scentre also kickstarted $605 million worth of new developments. Total assets under management are now $45.7 billion and our portfolio provides a solid foundation for strong longterm, risk-adjusted returns, says Peter Allen, CEO, Scentre Group.
In partnership with Cbus, one of Australia's largest superannuation funds, Scentre Group bought the David Jones Market Street store for $360 million last August. An acquisition that will add 10,000 square metres of luxury retail space to Westfield Sydney in the CBD. DJs will also be front and centre of the recently announced $350 million redevelopment of Westfield Carousel in Perth, which will feature an expanded fashion offering and a new entertainment, dining and leisure precinct. Westfield Plenty Valley in Melbourne's Mill Park is also in line for an $80 million facelift, adding more "dwell space" including a new dining and entertainment expansion.
Our longterm strategy is to own the highest quality shopping centre portfolio in Australia and New Zealand, says Allen. " We have now completed the divestment of more shopping centres that did not meet this objective, which has refined our portfolio to meet the dynamic needs of both retailers and customers".
Gender pay gap for women in retail worsens
All the feel-good sisterhood ads and articles in the world can't sugarcoat the fact that Australian women are going backwards in many industries when it comes to the gender pay gap. The annual Gender Equality Insights Report, collated by Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC) and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, analysed data covering four million Australian workers across 12,000 organisations. Retail remains the nation's lowest-paid industry for women and the gender gap for full-time workers increased from 15.5 per cent in 2015 to 16.2 per cent in 2016.
According to BCEC Research Fellow, Rebecca Cassells: "Not only do female-dominated organisations tend to be lower paid, but this analysis shows that in workplaces with heavily female-dominated management teams there are large gender pay gaps in favour of men. It seems that where the men are few, they are more highly valued".
A situation that doesn't stop on the shop floor, says the report. In retail, where 80 per cent of managers are female, the management gender pay gap rises from 8 per cent to 17 per cent in favour of men. It pays to challenge the stereotypes of what constitutes women's work. Women employed in the mining industry – Australia's most male-dominated industry - have the highest average pay of female full-time workers of $139,053 per year.
Inside the mind of the beauty enthusiast
That's the latest marketing term for the valued customers formerly known as beauty mavens, beauty junkies, beauty divas and more. They are on every cosmetic brand's radar because a large part of their discretionary income is earmarked for beauty purchases. Understandably, many sessions at the CEW Transformational Leader event in New York focused on tracking their habits.
The biggest takeaway is that beauty enthusiasts are not limited to Millennials. The age range stretches from 18 to 60, says The Benchmarking Company. Three major factors determine the description – a strong emotional attachment to their chosen beauty brands, the use of a large number of beauty products to achieve their particular look and a deep commitment to the role beauty plays in their lives.
They are equally committed to the Internet to fuel their "habit", says the researcher. Comparing prices is the number one online activity (72%), followed by reading reviews (69%), making purchases (61%), checking out what's on sale (59%), researching products to buy in-store (55%) and reading product claims (33%).
But what will beauty enthusiasts be looking for over the next decade? The Benchmarking Company reports that age-specific kits (74%), brightening/lightening products (66%) and face masks ( 61%) will dominate the skincare category through to 2027. In makeup the top three trends are - good for the skin makeup (87%), life-proof makeup (66%) and colour palettes (65%). The leading trio in haircare are advanced hair tools (78%), hair texture products (60%) and hair masks (54%).
Official death of the signature scent
"Promise her anything, but give her Arpege" was the sultry come-on line for Lanvin's global bestselling fragrance for over 40 years. Such longevity is unthinkable these days, let alone its objective of persuading women to choose the lush floral as their signature scent to the exclusion of all others. The marketing idea – and that's what it was – has been on life support for years, but recent analysis from the NPD Group has officially put the last nail in its coffin. Only 10 per cent of fragrance wearers have a signature fragrance, says the data analyst, and such traditionalists "are more likely to be 45 years and older, men and white".
NPD's insights say that Millennials are moving away from fragrance which is probably why we are seeing more and more youth-oriented scents attempting to change their minds. Ten per cent fewer women aged 18 to 24 bought fragrance in 2016, says NPD, and five per cent fewer women in the older cohort of the age group – 25 to 34 – shopped for scent last year. Interestingly, 76 per cent of younger fragrance purchasers did so to treat themselves. Consumers also now prefer standalone fragrances rather than gift sets, which experienced a sharp decline in over 50 per cent of global markets last year.
Snippets from the wires
- Giorgio Armani is streamlining his fashion empire by eliminating two diffusion brands. Armani Collezioni and Armani Jeans are being shuttered to leave only three core lines beginning in the 2017/2018 season – Giorgio Armani, Emporio Armani and A/X Armani Jeans.
- Fashion brands all over the world are suffering sharp declines in business as more and more shoppers opt for e-commerce. BCBG Max Azria, whose gowns are favoured by Selena Gomez and Drew Barrymore, has just applied for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 in the US. American Apparel and The Limited have also gone down the same road in recent months.
- Kiko Milano, the Italian budget beauty chain, now boasts 950 stores worldwide across the EU, Russia, Turkey, Hong Kong and the US. Known for its fast fashion approach to beauty, the company is set to launch in Israel.
- Kit Harington, best known as Jon Snow in Game of Thrones, is switching fragrance camps. The inaugural face for Jimmy Choo Man will now be lending his handsome visage to Dolce & Gabbana The One for Men, one of D&G's global bestsellers.
