Los Angeles – April 29, 2010 – The United Kingdom (UK) has maintained its position as the world’s most international retail market, according to the new edition of the How Global is the Business of Retail? report by CB Richard Ellis (CBRE). Attracting 58% of all international retail brands surveyed, the UK is now closely followed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where 54% of international retailers are present. This emerging market’s growing ability to attract international retailers fuelled its rise as a global retail destination during 2009, seeing it take second position in CBRE’s top global retail markets ranking for the first time. The United States is in third place, drawing 51% of global retail brands.
CBRE’s annual survey – now in its third year – mapped the global footprint of 294 of the world’s top retailers across 69 countries, exploring the globalization of the retail industry at national and city levels and highlighting differences between sectors and regions, thereby identifying changing trends in the patterns of global retail expansion.
Despite a bumpy year for retail markets across the world, the United Kingdom maintained the number one position in the top 20 most international retail markets ranking for the third year running. Overall, Europe continued to dominate the top 20, with all five of the largest European economies featuring in the top 10 international retail destinations: UK (1st), France (4th), Spain (6th), Germany (7th) and Italy (8th).
However, the top 20 list has become considerably more global in the past year as retailers target key emerging markets in addition to the more established retail destinations. For example, the United Arab Emirates and China have rapidly expanded their international retail offer. As a result, China, for instance, has moved up the global ranking by two places in the past year to enter the top five for the first time, with 47% of retailers now present there.
“The survey underscores that while established markets like the United States and the United Kingdom remain pillars of business success for global retail brands, emerging markets are playing a critical role in the expansion strategies of international retailers,” said Anthony Buono, Executive Managing Director of CBRE Retail Services in the Americas. “The inherent medium-term growth potential of many emerging markets remains a key strategic magnet, helped by the fact that in some cases these markets have as yet only been targeted by relatively few international brands.”
“Finding suitable real estate is a common barrier to entering a new market, and we are finding that the opening of new retail space and shopping centers are key triggers for international retailers considering a move into particular new markets,” said Peter Gold, Head of EMEA Cross Border Retail, CB Richard Ellis. “The current decrease in the development pipeline is likely to restrict the opportunities for retailers to expand further over the coming years.”
Almost half of all retailers in the survey (49%) had some presence in each of the three main global regions, but their footprint varied widely. The most expansive retailers have a presence in over 60 countries and 170 cities. Luxury retailers continued to expand in Asia, but those markets which saw most new retailer arrivals succeeded in attracting entrants from a wide range of retail sectors.
Source: CB Richard Ellis
For more information and a copy of the full ‘How Global is the Business of Retail?’ report for 2010, please visit: www.cbre.eu
Note to Editors:
In previous editions of How Global is the Business of Retail?, the country analysis has excluded domestic retailers in order to remove the effects of nationality bias with the sample. However, given that the sample has been expanded and now contains such a large number of retailers, in this edition the analysis includes all retailers operating within a country, including those based in the country concerned. This has retrospectively impacted the country-level rankings for previous years.
About CB Richard Ellis
CB Richard Ellis Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBG), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Los Angeles, is the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm (in terms of 2009 revenue). The Company has approximately 29,000 employees (excluding affiliates), and serves real estate owners, investors and occupiers through more than 300 offices (excluding affiliates) worldwide. CB Richard Ellis offers strategic advice and execution for property sales and leasing; corporate services; property, facilities and project management; mortgage banking; appraisal and valuation; development services; investment management; and research and consulting. CB Richard Ellis has been named a BusinessWeek 50 “best in class” company for three years in a row. Please visit our Web site at www.cbre.com.