Westfield parent company Scentre Group has recorded a 13.7% rise in visits across its shopping centre portfolio in the first 17 weeks of 2023.
The number is up 20 million visits on the same period last year, as consumers return to bricks-and-mortar shopping.
“On a rolling 12-month basis customer visitations were 499 million, up 22.6% on the previous corresponding period,” Scentre Group CEO Elliott Rusanow said.
Scentre Group collected $864 million of gross rent during the four months to April 30, $64 million higher than the prior comparable period in 2022.
Business partners achieved $6.4 billion of sales in the quarter, up 14.4% compared to the corresponding quarter in 2022.
“On a rolling 12-month basis to 31 March 2023, our business partners achieved record sales of $27.5 billion,” Rusanow said. “Cash collections for the first four months were $864 million, $64 million higher than the corresponding period for 2022 and in excess of 100% of gross billings.
Rusanow said the shopping centre group will increase its shopping mall activations, such as the recently launched Disney 100 pop-up stores.
“Our focus is providing people with more reasons to visit our destinations and so far this year, we have activated more than 3,300 events.”
Scentre Group operates 42 Westfield shopping centres, with 37 in Australia and seven in New Zealand. Portfolio occupancy is 98.9% as at April, 30.