Retail is not dead and food retail is the new success story
Everyone is looking for a strong footfall anchor and food has proved during and after the pandemic that it is the best possible anchor, Dr. Angelus Bernreuther, Head of Investor Relationship Management, Kaufland Stiftung & Co, told Real Asset Media.
“Food is the new success story”, he said. “It is an opportunity for investors to find value in more locations. That is why Kaufland is a tenant is shopping centres and retail parks. We are expanding, with a strong focus on Germany and CEE. We have more than 1,350 hyperstores, but we are keen and hungry to find more locations”.
In the current environment, “the good news is that retail is not dead”, Bernreuther said, but “we need to be more flexible on how we manage our assets. In retail real estate we’ll see more and more revitalisation projects”.
Kaufland sees great opportunities in Central and Eastern Europe and beyond, he said. “As Poland grows, we’ll grow too, but we also target Romania and Czech Republic and Croatia”, he told Richard Stephens, Editor of Poland Today. “We’re very flexible as to locations and we are ready to expand in rural locations and in urban areas as well”. One of the positive aspects of investing in CEE, he said, is that there is such a number of investable cities of different sizes that are all potential markets.
Please click on the video above to watch the full interview or listen to the podcast, below.